Safe
by msjgatsby
Summary: How can he make her feel safe when it's his fault she's not?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:** I wrote this one quickly. Really quickly. With no proofing. You've been warned.

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Safe

Mike sits in the meeting area of the county jail, waiting. He does not have happy memories of this room. His side throbs in phantom pains from the memory of when Bello found out he was a Fed and attacked him. The memory of Bello's accusing words the last time he was here may hurt more though. Mike tells himself he isn't evil. He was doing his job to keep evil off the street. As Briggs said, sometimes that job called for him to play in the shades of grey. Mike misses the days when things were black and white. He's not comfortable in the grey.

He steels himself against whatever Bello may have to say to him now. He was certain their most recent meeting would be the last, but yesterday Bello had called and requested a visitation, but wouldn't say why. Mike didn't want to be here, but if there was even a chance they could get Odin, Mike was willing to meet him and hear him out.

"Michael. I'm glad you decided to meet with me." Bello is polite as always. The calm controlled tone gives just a glimpse of the madness that lies beneath.

"Yeah, well from your message, you sounded like you had something pretty urgent to say. What with your trial coming up you ready to finally talk about Odin Rossey?" Mike keeps his tone cool and professional.

"Oh, I'm sorry to have misled you. No. I'm here today to talk about women."

"Women problems? I somehow doubt you've got a lot of those in here." Mike says sarcastically. If Bello wasn't here to talk about Odin this was a waste of his time.

"No, my friend. Not my women problems, your women problems."

"That's very generous of you, but something tells me you didn't call me all the way down here to talk about my love life."

"But that's exactly what I did. See I never go into business with a man I don't know." Bello assures Mike.

"Well, no offense, but you did kind of miss a few key details." Mike holds up his FBI badge.

"Yes, but I know other things. See the nice thing about the drug business, people think it's a large complicated world but it's really not. People run in certain circles. People talk. Perhaps you are familiar with a Vance Young?"

"Yeah, he's a low level drug dealer down at Club Primotology. Hardly worth a man like you's time. Information on him is not going to buy your way out of here. What are you getting at?"

"Well, my sources tell me that a few months ago, he was at the Drop on a… what do they call it in America? A double date?"

Mike feels a cold sweat crawl up his neck.

"Rumor has it you have a very pretty girlfriend, Michael…"

"What have you done?" Mike asks, from behind gritted teeth.

"Me? Nothing. I certainly couldn't do anything from in here, but I wanted to be the one to deliver the message."

"And what is the message?" Mike fears he knows the answer before Bello says it.

Bello leans in menacingly across the table, an ugly grin distorting his handsome face. "We have her."

"Where is she?" Mike growls. He needs to keep cool. He needs to find out as much information as he can.

"I couldn't possibly know. Though perhaps if you were to arrange my release I might be able to help you find her. Though with all the red tape and such, I'm not sure how pretty she'll be by then…"

"If she's dead I swear to God…." Mike threatens.

"Dead? Oh no. Who could destroy such beauty? Though by the time my boys are done with her, she'll wish she was." Bello is not a man to be threatened. It's moments like this when Mike sees behind the facade of the man he befriended and protected, to see the monster below.

The two sit and glare at each other for a moment. Studying each other. It's a game of chess. The light versus the dark. Though, Mike is quickly learning, everything is in shades of gray.

"You're bluffing." Mike finally says, leaning back in his chair, attempting to look more relaxed than he feels.

"Am I?" Bello says cooly.

"Yes. You're toying with me. You know I couldn't arrange to get you out of here, even if I wanted to. You're bored and you're trying to play games with me. Most of your men are dead or imprisoned. The few remaining free never had loyalty to a thug like you. They know you're finished. The only person who ever had any loyalty to you was Eddy, and you put a bullet in his head."

"YOU DID THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH! IT WAS ALL YOU! I AM NOT FINISHED!"

The normally caged animal in Bello was out and he lunges across the table at Mike. The guards rushed forward to retrain Bello, but Mike hardly flinches. The guards drag Bello out of the room, away from Mike who still refuses to show any fear, sitting up straight and strong in his seat.

"You may not be in prison, Michael, but you will be punished for your sins." Bello's soft threatening voice unravels Mike more than his screaming ever could.

As soon as Bello is out of eyesight, Mike stands up and storms out of the prison towards his car. He jumps in and slams the door shut.

His mind is reeling.

_He has to be bluffing... Bello doesn't have that kind of power...But he knew about Vance Young... So what? It was just a name it didn't mean anything. Bello was just trying to mess with me… Screw with my mind..._

It had worked. Mike was definitely rattled.

He turns on the engine and drives across town as quickly as he can. He keeps imagining every possible bad scenario in his head. He runs through red lights, and weaves through traffic. When he arrives at his destination, he leaves his car parked on the curb and runs up the long flight of stairs and begins pounding on the door like a madman.

"Abby! Abby open up! It's Mike!"

When no one answers, Mike pulls out his gun and kicks in the door. He is not prepared for what he sees…


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note:** This chapter was also written very quickly. No proof reading. Just plowing through them. I'll probably wake up tomorrow and go "Oh my god, what did I write?! So many mistakes." but eh. Just going to plow through this one without much thought before the bug that bit me this morning leaves me.

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**Safe**

Johnny is laughing so hard he falls off his chair.

Mike stands there exasperated at the joy his roommate's taking in Mike's suffering. It was lunchtime, and Mike was relaying his horrible experience that morning to Charlie, Briggs and Johnny over grilled cheese.

"So you show up at Abby's door, after a month of not speaking to her. You break down the door prepared to 'save her' and she's in bed with another man? How Mikey? How do you put yourself in these situations?" Johnny asks, brushing tears from his eyes.

"I'm telling you! Bello got inside my head! He really freaked me out. By the time I got to her apartment, I was convinced I was going to find her dead body covered in lead! Not naked under some hulk of a man with no neck. Seriously, doesn't that seem a little quick to move on? I mean it's only been a month. She's already sleeping with someone new?" Mike complains.

"I can't believe he chased you down the street naked! You were armed and that man still chased you? That guy must have balls the size of grapefruits." Johnny is still laughing in amazement.

"Don't remind me. I saw them bouncing as he chased me for three blocks."

"But he wasn't one of Bello's guys or anything? Everything was ok?" Charlie asks, concerned for Mike.

"No, she was screaming alright, but she was definitely not being tortured." Mike groans at the horrifying memory of witnessing his former lover with another man. "I just was so freaked out. Why? Why would Bello do that to me?"

"Um, because he's a psychopathic criminal who you befriended for months, then betrayed and got his ass thrown in jail for the rest of his days?" Johnny suggests unhelpfully.

"Rest easy. You got the bad guy, Mike. Bello's behind bars. Of course he's going to be salty, but there's nothing he can do about it from there. My advice, change your number and move on." Briggs says, clapping his mentee on the shoulder.

"Now hold on, Bello's not the only bad guy out there guys. We still need to track down Odin Rossy. Mikey, since Bello's still fixated on you, do you think you could use that your advantage somehow? To trick him into telling you how to get Odin?" Charlie asks.

"Charlie. Drop the Odin thing. Ok?" Briggs commands her, frustrated with her one-mindedness. "Mikey, seriously it's fine. You don't do what we do without making a few enemies. Being on this job can make anyone a little paranoid. You did good. Bello can't hurt anyone anymore."

"I don't know. I'm still freaked out that he knew I was at the Drop with Abby. I mean he knew Vance's name. Why? Why would he say that if it didn't mean something?" Mike is still unsettled. Even knowing Abby's safe he can't shake the feeling something's wrong.

"Vance is a pretty common name, maybe you mentioned it in passing to him while you were undercover and he remembered it and wanted to freak you out." Briggs suggests.

"Maybe… But it was just so specific. I don't even know for sure his last name was Young… Hey, where's Paige? She'd know what his last name is."

"I don't know she didn't come home last night." Johnny says.

"Is she out on a case?" Charlie asks.

"Nah. She probably hooked up at the bar or something. It's lunch time, so she should come through here doing the walk of shame any second." Johnny shrugs.

"It's the get laid parade." Mike corrects him absentmindedly, pulling out his phone.

"What?" Johnny asks.

"Nothing." Excusing himself from the room Mike explains, "I'm gonna call her and ask. I don't think it was Young. I think it was Benson or Brown or something. I think it started with a B. I just want to check, so I can put this whole thing behind me."

Mike walks up towards Paige's room to make sure she didn't sneak in in the middle of the night, waiting for her to answer her phone and calm his fears, but she doesn't answer.

Her bed is empty and his call goes straight to voicemail.

Mike can't shake the anxious feeling in his stomach.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes:** Yay for new preview scene for tomorrow nights episode featuring Mike & Paige! Here's the next chapter. In the spirit of getting my uploads quicker, I'm trying to write these and post them in one hour each. So we're gonna lose some style and some proof reading, but hopefully we'll get a little more consistency with update time (though this weekend I'm out of town, so who knows?)

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Mike is walking back to the house in his wetsuit, dragging his surfboard beside him. He had gone surfing to clear his head, but after being pummeled repeatedly by waves all afternoon he was no closer to zen. Just sore and tired. He was still shaken up by his meeting with Bello that morning. Abby was safe, and the FBI had arranged to have a officer keep tabs on her for a few days in case anything changed, but Mike was still not satisfied. He hopes when he gets back to the house Paige is home, so she can assure him he's just crazy. She's good at that.

As Mike gets to the stairs, he sees Jakes returning as well. Jakes greets him casually. "Hey. What's up, Levi?"

"I had a weird morning, man. You don't even want to know." Mike laughs, trying to shake off the craziness that was today.

"You're right, I probably don't." Typical Jakes response. Mike should have expected that. "Hey, have you seen Paige? I've got a bone to pick with her."

"Paige? No. Why?" Mike has to suppress a grin. Paige was consistently helping herself to Jakes's stuff, and seemed to be the only one who could get away with it. Maybe her luck was finally out. "Did she take your whiskey again?"

"She was going under for me last night; making some connections that I'm apparently not pretty enough to get. We were supposed to meet up at corporate this morning to discuss the case with the higher ups, and she totally blew me off! I looked like an idiot standing there saying 'No sir, I do not know what the bad men said, because my source is not here.'"

"Really? Paige didn't show up for work? That doesn't sound like… No." Mike drops his board. "No... It can't be… BRIGGS!"

Mike takes off at a sprint up the stairs of the house, leaving Jakes at the bottom, completely confused.

"Briggs! Briggs! BRIGGS!" Mike runs through the halls of Graceland hollering his mentor's name, "Briggs! They have her. They took Paige."

"Woah, slow down Mikey. What's wrong?" Briggs comes stumbling out of his room, looking half asleep.

"Paige!"

"What about her-"

"They took her! Paige!"

"Mikey slow down, I'm not following you. Who took Paige?"

"It's Paige! He thinks she's my girlfriend. They didn't grab Abby, they grabbed Paige. Bello. He's got her."

"Wait, are you serious? Are you sure?"

"Yes! How could I not have realized it sooner..." Mike shoves by Briggs, and runs into his room, looking for his phone. Finding it, he sees Paige still hasn't returned his call. Grabbing his keys, his wallet and his gun, he dashes back into the hallway. He dials her number frantically.

"She's not answering her phone!" Mike yells at Briggs as he runs by him.

"Where are you going?" Briggs grabs for Mike has he dashes past, halting his progress.

"I'm going back to County. I'm going to force that bastard to tell me what he's done with her." Mike says determinedly, dialing her number again, even though he knows by now it's useless. He yanks out of Briggs's grasp and attempts to leave again.

"Agent Warren, STOP." Briggs commands.

"They have her Briggs! I know it." Mike yells desperately.

"Fine. Go to County, but put on some clothes first."

"There isn't time!" Mike argues.

"Just grab something to change into. You can't go face Bello in a wetsuit." Briggs says rationally.

"Briggs!" Mike protests, but seeing Briggs's face Mike realizes arguing with him would take longer than just grabbing the clothes. With a frustrated yell, Mike sprints back to his room.

"I'll have Charlie go file a missing agent report, and I'll talk to my guys in Bobby Moi's crowd to see if they've heard anything. In case someone contacts us here, I'll have Johnny stay behind. I'll tell Jakes to check out her cell phone records and credit card statements, see if we can get a hit." Briggs explains to Mike, who barely hears a word he says, as he frantically looks around his room for clothes. Why wasn't he one of those people who left dirty clothes lying on the ground?!

Finally succeeding in assembling a full outfit, Mike takes off again, running by Briggs and down the stairs. He passes a confused Jakes on the way, who tries to stop him, but Mike shoves by him, running to his car. He tears across the streets of California. He has never driven so recklessly in his life, but somehow five minutes later, finds himself at the County Prison.

"I need to see prisoner Jeremiah Bello right this instant. It's urgent." Mike yells at the officer manning the front desk.

"I'm sorry sir, do you have a visitation scheduled?"

"No. I don't but I need to speak with him right now. It's a matter of life or death."

"Sir, I'm sorry, but you will need to schedule an appointment."

"NO!" Mike screams. "No, you don't understand. I'm Mike Warren with the FBI. I need to speak to Jeremiah Bello NOW! My friend she's in trouble! I need to find her, and Bello is my only link!" Mike slams his gun on the desk threateningly.

"Sir, visitors are not permitted to bring firearms on these premises-"

"I'M NOT A VISITOR! I'M FBI! GET ME BELLO NOW!" Mike screams at the top of his lungs, pulling out his badge.

"Sir, let me get my supervisor." The officer disappears into the other room, leaving Mike ready to punch something.

Mike paces anxiously in front of the desk. Every second wasted here is a second Paige could be in pain. Or worse. He futilely tries to calm himself down. He needs to stay calm so he can save Paige, and he needs to save Paige. He will never forgive himself if she… He needs to not think about that.

_Calm, Mike. For Paige. You can do this._

The officer comes back with her superior, and Mike has managed to calm his breathing, to controlled deep breaths.

Keeping his voice as level as possible he states, "I'm Agent Mike Warren with the FBI. I was here this morning. I need to speak to Jeremiah Bello immediately. It's important."

"Agent Warren, I'm sorry. There was a prison fight that broke out this morning. Jeremiah Bello was stabbed multiple times. He was pronounced dead at three o'clock. We believe the Caza cartel may have been involved."

"Oh my God… Paige…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Safe**

Mike sits on the couch at Graceland, staring blankly ahead. He's not sure how long he's been sitting here. It could have been just a couple minutes. It could have been hours. His roommates are talking around him, but he can't process their words. He doesn't know what to do. He's in shock. _Why her?_

"Jakes, did Paige say where she was heading last night?" Charlie asks, trying to bring some form of order to the discussion.

"She was supposed to be entertainment for a bachelor party last night at a private room in the Redline Club. But I already talked to them man, they said she never showed." Jakes answers, from where he sitting slumped on the couch.

"The dumpster where they found her cell phone and wallet was nowhere near there." Briggs says, from where he is pacing back and forth.

"Did they get prints?" Charlie asks.

"Nope. It was cleaned. Her phone records say the last call she made was at 5:15 to Mike." Briggs answers.

"Mike, did she give any indication of where she was, or anything being wrong?" Charlie turns to Mike.

"No. She was at the grocery, and asked if I wanted her to grab me anything. I asked for juice. It's in the fridge." Mike says in an empty voice.

Was that the last conversation he would ever have with her? Arguing with her about how much pulp should be in orange juice? No. He couldn't think like that. They would find her.

"I saw her after that. At the house around 7:30. When I left, she was fine. She said she was going to head out in a bit to the Redline." Jakes backs up Mike's details.

"She could be anywhere. We have no starting place!" Johnny groans.

"That's not true. Vance. We go find him, and force him to talk." Charlie insists.

"Bello thought she was my girlfriend." Mike mutters absently, not making sense to anyone but himself.

"Yeah man, I know this is the wrong time to ask, but is there something going on with you two?" Johnny asks Mike conversationally.

"JOHNNY!" Charlie and Briggs scold him simultaneously. Jakes throws a couch cushion at his head.

"What? If we're gonna find her, we need all the information. Mike! Be straight with me man. Were you hitting that?" Johnny defends his question.

"No Johnny! Christ!" Mike yells defensively.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were good to be on this case. If you're emotionally compromised-"

"Johnny! It's Paige! She's one of our own. We are all emotional right now, ok? So let's just try to focus here." Briggs scolds Johnny. "Now, I think Chuck's right. Our best chance is we find Vance, and force him to talk."

"Vance won't know anything." Mike grumbles.

"He might! It's really the only option I see here. Other than that, we have nothing!"

"He won't! The guy wouldn't abduct Paige, he was definitely stupid, but not evil." As much as Mike hated the guy, he knew he wasn't capable of something like this. "Besides if he knew something they would have made a grab for Abby. Not Paige."

"So what's your great plan then Levi? Do nothing and hope she comes back? We have nothing!" Briggs demands.

"Yeah, if nothing else, roughing up Vance will at least feel damn good." Charlie says vengefully, Johnny and Jakes nod in agreement.

They need someone to blame, and with Bello dead, Vance is going to take the brunt of their rage. Mike only blames himself. If only he could have realized it earlier and not gone to Abby's. If he had asked Bello more questions or gotten there before the prison fight, Paige could be home safe right now.

"It couldn't have been Vance who told Bello, someone must have recognized us out." Mike mumbles to himself, "After all they thought Paige was my girlfriend."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, it just shows Bello doesn't have all the information. He knows I was on that date, but he didn't know Paige was with Vance and Abby was with me. So Vance clearly doesn't know anything about her abduction, or else he'd have known it was Abby they should have grabbed." Mike is thinking outloud to himself.

"What are you getting at Mike?" Briggs asks.

"… If Bello thinks Paige's my girlfriend, he wouldn't have necessarily known he just grabbed an agent..." Mike continues working through the situation. He knows he's missing something.

"Yeah, Mikey. I'm sure she'll be fine. Paige's tough. We need to focus now on finding her, she's been missing for at least…" Briggs looks at his watch, "...Twenty six hours."

"THAT'S IT!" Mike stands up suddenly.

"What?" The roommates all look at him confused.

"They don't know she's DEA." It's such a slim ray of hope, but it's all he has. He quickly turns to Jakes, his mind focusing in. Praying he's right. "Jakes, she was under last night right?"

"I told you, she never showed up." Jakes says.

"But she was wearing a wire right?" Mike asks, urgently.

"It wasn't a live recording transmitting anywhere, so no one would have overheard what was happening. We didn't think she'd need backup. It was a simple meet."

"Right, so she was wearing a standard recorder right?" Mike asks, turning to Briggs. "That night I almost shot Donny, I had a watch. It's got a mic in it. We knew I was gonna get sweeped, but she wasn't expecting that. She would have had a recorder, in case she got dirt on someone. Right?"

"Yeah, she was looking for information, she should have had it on her." Jakes admits, still not sure where Mike is heading with this.

"Brilliant Mike!" Briggs proclaims, realizing what Mike is thinking.

"What? What just happened?" Johnny and the others don't quite catch on to Mike's plan.

"Standard protocol has a GPS in each one of those watches, unless we're thinking there's gonna be a sweep. If she still has her watch on her, we can track her." Briggs explains.

"We can track her." Mike says confidently.

"You think she still has her watch?" Charlie asks doubtfully.

"I know she does. She has to. It's our only chance." Mike says.

This will work.It has to.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: Warning, this chapter contains some violence.

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**Safe**

Mike paces around the FBI headquarters as the tech guy searches for the GPS coordinates of Paige's watch.

"Her coordinates are placing her at the intersection of Wall and Eighth street. It's a pretty rundown part of town. Most likely she's being held in this foreclosed warehouse here. It's about twenty minutes away. We can coordinate a strike team to-"

Mike doesn't hear the rest because he is already out the door.

The drive across town is not the same hectic dash Mike made earlier to the county prison. It's calculated, controlled and purposeful. He plots and calculates different scenarios that might occur. As he pulls up to the abandoned building, and reaches with a steady hand for his gun lying in the seat beside him, his hand doesn't even shake. Mike looks at his phone which has been buzzing on the seat beside him the entire drive. He knows it's Briggs. He hesitates on whether to answer or not, but figures he should in case they've moved her.

"Any change in location?" Mike doesn't bother saying hello. His voice is deadly calm.

"Are you out of your mind?! Get back here now! We have to come up with a strategy! You have no idea what you're walking into, Mike!" Briggs yells at him over the phone.

"I know every second wasted is one she might be in pain. I'm going to get her."

"You're going to get yourself killed! We have protocols specifically designed to deal with kidnappings! Wait there, we are heading out now. Just don't-"

"I'm here, Briggs, and I'm going in. If I don't come out, you promise me you'll save her." Mike says, staring at the doorway of the warehouse. He hangs up before Briggs has a chance to respond.

Mike goes to the front door, but it's locked. He walks around to the side of the building. He sees a low window with one pane of glass already broken. He picks up an old rusty fender lying on the side of the alleyway, gets a running start, and smashes it through the rest of the window. The glass shatters around him and he quickly climbs through the now open space. He doesn't even feel the pain of the glass slicing through his skin.

He realizes the noise probably will have alerted someone to his presence, and sure enough around the corner comes a man to investigate, armed with a semiautomatic weapon. Mike immediately, without warning or question, shoots the man in the chest. He doesn't even attempt to maim him first. He goes straight for the kill.

Walking over to the lifeless body of the man, Mike kneels down and collects his gun. Another man comes around the corner and looks shocked to see Mike kneeling over the dead body of his friend. The man turns to flee, but Mike shoots him in the calf. He needs this one to talk.

Walking over to the man who's lying on the floor clutching his injured leg, Mike grabs him by the shirt and lifts him to his feet. He grabs the man's arm twisting it behind his back at a painful angle.

"Where is she?" He growls in the man's ear.

"He's not after her, he's after you, you filthy pig traitor!"

"Well now you have me, so where is she?" Mike twists his arm farther until he hears it pop out of his shoulder socket. The man screams in pain.

"You broke my arm!" The man wails. Mike quickly lifts up his boot and stamps his heel down hard on the man's foot. The man screams and would fall over if not for the force of Mike holding him up.

"Yeah, well now I broke your foot too. Now am I going to break something else, or are you going to tell me where she is?" Mike threatens.

"You can't do this! You're a fed! This is police brutality!" The man cries.

"Oh yeah? Let me show you something." Mike twists the guy around, forcing him to look at the body of the first man he had shot, lying in a puddle of blood. "See your buddy there? This seems pretty gentle now, right? I am not fucking around. Now you're going to take me to where she is right now."

"You're insane!" The man pants.

As the man struggles, Mike feels a stab of pain in his leg. He looks down and realizes there is a large shard of glass embedded in his right thigh from the broken window, that the man has just pushed back against. Keeping the man's arm twisted behind him with one hand, Mike reaches down and rips the glass out of his leg, blood spurting out with it's withdrawal. He takes the shard and stabs it deep under the man's rib cage. He twists it, not caring when his own hand starts bleeding in the process.

"She's at the end of the hall! In the main storage room! But there's three guys there, they'll kill her if you don't let me go!" The guy screams out.

Mike spins the guy around and slams him rough into the wall so his head cracks the plaster. "Fine, I'll let you go."

He pulls out his gun and pistol whips the man. The man falls to the floor but Mike pulls back and punches the guy in the face, again and again. With the rage he feels he would happily stay and use his worthless face as a punching bed for the rest of the day, but Paige needs him.

He stalks down the hallway. When he comes to the entrance, he peeks around the corner. There are three guys, and he can see at least two of them are armed. They clearly are aware something is going on, but haven't figured out what yet.

There, in the center of the room, hidden in shadows from the large crates stacked high around her, is Paige. Mike's heart skips a beat when he finally sees her. She's propped up in a chair, and her head is lolled forward so Mike can't see her face, but she's there. He wants to rush to her side, but first he has to deal with these three monsters.

Mike calculates in his head, running through each strategy of how he can best approach this situation. He sees guns in the hands of the man closest to him and the one checking the perimeter. He doesn't see a weapon in the hands of the man standing closest to Paige, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have one.

He will have a very short amount of time once he fires the first shot. He knows that he should aim for the guy closest to him first, then the second with the gun, and take care of the unarmed man last. But the unarmed man is closest to Paige, and he might have enough of a reaction time to hurt her if Mike fails.

Taking a deep breath, Mike jumps out from behind the corner and shoots the man closest to Paige square in in the head. The other two men are surprised, but quickly point their guns at Mike. Within ten seconds, Mike has fired a second shot at the man closest to him.

Mike feels a bullet graze his shoulder, throwing off his shot of the third man, but quickly recovers and shoots him twice in the chest. Once all three men are on the ground, Mike dashes to the man lying on the floor closest to him. Picking up the man's gun, he uses it to fire a kill shot into the groaning man's head.

When Mike disarms the second man, he notices a chain around the man's neck holding a blood stained key. Mike reaches down and rips it from his neck. He runs to the third guy and kicks his now still body over, looking for a weapon. He finds a knife, and takes it as well, stabbing it deep into one of the crates.

Only once Mike has done a final scan of the perimeter does he drop his guard, allowing himself to come back to the moment. Tucking his gun into the back of his pants, he kneels beside the chair holding Paige.

Her body is slumped over. The only way she's staying upright, is that her hands are cuffed together behind her, and her feet are each handcuffed to a leg of the chair. He realizes with horror that the bastards have stripped her bare. Her naked body is covered with bruises and injuries, but Mike is solely focused on her unresponsive face. Her face is half concealed behind her blonde hair which is matted with dried blood, but he can already make out her black eye and split lip beneath the blood and hair.

She's so injured he's afraid if he touches her she will shatter, and the fact that she still hasn't woken, despite the noise around her, terrifies him.

"Oh no. No, no, no." Mike whispers to himself, Paige, and God. "No. Don't be dead. Paige, please don't be dead."


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes:** So perhaps last chapter where I said "some violence" I should have said "Mike goes crazy vengeful assassin." I may have to change this rating to M to stay on the safe side of things. Which would be a shame, because I feel like I would scare off some audience members who might actually like it and people who only read M fanfiction because they like smut would be disappointed as well.

* * *

**Safe**

"No. Don't be dead. Paige, don't be dead." Mike begs.

She doesn't respond to his plea. Mike hesitantly reaches out to touch her, scared her skin will be cool to the touch, but it's warm. He gently cradles her head in his hands and feels her pulse beating strong under his fingertips and hears her rough, but steady, breaths.

"Oh god, Paige." He was so scared he'd find her dead. Not that this state is much better.

Now that he knows she's alive, he scans her naked body clinically, assessing all the damage. It's hard to tell the extent of her injuries because every inch of her is covered in dried blood and dirt. Mike can make out dozens of ugly bruises and wounds marring her skin, and her entire left side of her abdomen is blurred into one big purple blotch. The fingers on her right hand are swollen and bent at a slightly odd angle. At least, she does not appear to have been shot in the fray, nor does she seem in danger of bleeding out.

After he's given her a once over, to make sure there's nothing requiring immediate action, he quickly takes off his FBI jacket and gently wraps it around her shoulders. He wants to give her as much modesty as possible.

He quickly uses the key he ripped from the dead man's neck to undo the handcuffs linking her feet to the chair. He slides behind her to unhook her hands, but once unhooked her body starts to fall forward. He catches her as gently as possible, positioning himself in front of her, and brushing the hair out of her eyes.

Part of him doesn't want to attempt to rouse her. He doesn't want her to wake up to this nightmare. He wants to keep her peaceful and oblivious. At the same time, Mike needs to talk to her. He needs to make sure the girl he knows is still in this tortured body.

He double checks that his jacket is covering as much of her body as possible before he attempts to wake her. He doesn't want her to feel any embarrassment in front of him. He needs her to feel as safe as possible now that he's there.

He takes her face gently in his hands. His heart is breaking just looking at her. Her lip is split open, and she has dried blood caked on her face. He can't tell which injury the blood is from, she has so many. Her eye is swollen and puffy and developing a purple hugh.

"Paige?" His voice breaks, and he clears his throat, trying to remain calm for her.

He gently rubs her cheek with his thumb, smearing her face with fresh blood from his hands. She doesn't deserve this. No one does, but especially not Paige.

"Paige, can you wake up for me, sunshine? It's Mike. You're safe, ok? I'm getting you out of here. I just need you to open your eyes. Come on Paige, please just open your eyes." He pleads with her, tears starting to form in his eyes.

Paige lets out a groan and starts to pull back from his hands, but he gently keeps her head propped up facing him.

"Paige, please. Just open your eyes for me once, and I'll get you out of here. Come on sunshine. Open your eyes, Paige." He begs.

One eye flutters open. The other is swollen shut from the bruise. Rather than the bright playful green eyes that he's used to watching roll at him, her eye is bloodshot and her pupil is dilated to an unnatural size. There's nearly no iris showing. They must have drugged her with something.

"Hi you." He says as he smiles weakly at her, trying not to show that his heart is breaking for her. Her eye darts about wildly, not being able to focus on his face. He has to get her to the hospital now. "Shhh… It's ok. It's Mike. I'm going to get you out of here, ok?"

He reaches down to pick up her broken body and she screams in pain. He almost drops her at the sound. After the initial scream, she clenches her teeth and her eyes close tightly, her hand tightly twisting on his shirt, curling up into him, taking deep breaths. He walks as quickly as he can without jostling her.

He's almost at the end of the hall when he sees the swat team show up.

"About time. There's about five guys in there, all wounded. Some possible casualties." Mike greets them gruffly, not slowing his pace.

One of the officers comes forward to take Paige from Mike, but he cradles her possessively in his arms. His eyes state the unspoken promise that if anyone takes her from him again, they will face the same fate as the men in the warehouse.

Mike carries her out the door, and the EMTs rush towards him with a gurney to take her to the ambulance. Mike tenderly lays her down on the gurney, protectively making sure his coat remains covering her.

"Mike." Her voice is so faint he can barely hear it. He leans down close to her, while the paramedics get her situated on the gurney

"I'm here Paige. It's ok. We're going to get you to the hospital." He wants to touch her, be physically connected to her in some way, but doesn't know where he could without hurting her.

"No." She whimpers. "Wanna go home."

"I know, and you will, ok? I promise. But we have to get you a hospital now." Mike assures her.

"No hospital. I just want home." The crack in her voice makes Mike want to cry with her, but he stays strong. He has to stay strong for her.

"One quick stop to get you checked out. Then we'll go home. I promise." Mike lightly brushes his lips over her forehead.

The paramedics start to load her into the back of the ambulance, and she makes a grab for his hand with her left hand.

"Don't leave me." She whispers.

"Never." Mike swears to her, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

Mike begins to board the ambulance after the EMT's have gotten Paige inside, but an FBI agent stops him.

"Agent Warren. We need you to make a report of what happened here. Especially with so many casualties and irregularities in protocol there will need to be an investigation." The agent informs him.

Mike knows this man ranks higher than him and is in charge of this operation, well what's left of it, but Mike knows filing a report and going through the interview, counseling, and investigation will take hours if not weeks. Paige needs him now.

It's not even a question to Mike. He made a promise.

Blood soaked and jaw set firm, Mike follows Paige into the ambulance.

He pauses at the entrance to turn to the agent and defiantly states, "Look I have to go with her. So unless you're going to arrest me right now, the report will have to wait."


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes**: Thank you all so much for the reviews! I appreciate hearing from you. I know the last couple chapters have been a little intense. It's a pretty dark story compared to my others, but I always try to include some levity as well.

Oh and super big thanks to lovesloveandangst who scoured the interwebs the other day for me to find me a gif I needed to see. haha

* * *

**Safe**

Johnny and Mike walk across the parking lot, silently, to Johnny's car.

"Dude…" Johnny begins to speak, but Mike cuts him off.

"I don't want to talk about it, Johnny."

"Yeah, but man seriously…"

"Johnny! I said I don't want to talk about it." Mike barks.

"Ok, ok." Johnny says, a smirk on his face as he unlocks the door and holds it open for Mike.

"Seriously man?" Mike looks at him incredulously.

"What?" Johnny asks him innocently.

"You're not going to take these off of me?" Mike nods his head over his shoulder, gesturing to the handcuffs holding his wrists behind his back.

"No man! You're on a tear today, and if you're beating up agents now, I feel safer with them on. See this face? It's the money maker." Johnny grins at him, clearly loving the temporary disadvantage Mike finds himself in.

"Johnny, I'm not in the mood. Can you just get these off me?" Mike turns around and holds his wrists out towards Johnny. When Johnny doesn't move, Mike rolls his eyes and growls, "Please?"

"Ok, ok. Easy killer." Johnny says, teasingly, dropping the key in Mike's hand and walking around to the other side of the car, leaving Mike to unlock himself. Once he has one wrist free he gets in the passenger seat of Johnny's car, and unlocks the other, eager to get on the road.

Johnny gets in and turns on the car beginning the drive to the hospital. The silence in the car is unsettling, especially since Johnny is never silent. Mike takes a deep breath, now that he's finally heading to see Paige he feels better, but only a little. Looking over at Johnny, who's sulking, Mike sighs. It's not Johnny's fault, and he was the one who came to pick him up from headquarters.

"Sorry, Johnny. Say what you have to say." Mike finally relents.

"What were you thinking Mikey? You attacked a federal agent?" Johnny wastes no time in letting Mike know exactly what he is thinking.

"The guy was being a dick!" Mike justifies.

"Dude, you're lucky they didn't file assault charges against you, or at the very least resisting arrest."

"It's an internal disagreement. It's not a real arrest. Their damn paperwork could have waited. They want to do a psych evaluation on me!"

"Well can you blame them? I mean if you really wanted to go with her, you should have just played up your injuries and said you needed to go to the hospital for medical treatment. I mean you were freaking shot dude! There's not much to fake."

"I promised her, Johnny. I said I wouldn't leave her and I did." Mike runs a hand down his face.

Ever since he was put in the police car, he had been thinking of the thousands of ways he had failed her. Johnny was right, saying he was injured probably would have been a better way to go.

"Dude, you got hauled away in handcuffs by three agents. I don't think it counts as 'leaving'. She'll understand." Johnny comforts Mike.

"Is she ok? Have you seen her?" Mike asks, staring out the window.

"No man, I had to come collect your punk ass. Charlie and Jakes are there at the hospital, but I don't think they know anything yet. Charlie said she'd text me with any updates. Briggs is down at the bureau still trying to smooth over the little mess you made."

"I just lost it Johnny. I mean I was so scared I was too late, and when I saw those guys… I have never felt hate like that. It just took over." Even remembering it, Mike feels like he was watching himself. He doesn't feel like they're his memories. "I just shot them. What if I was wrong? I didn't even give them a chance to explain."

"Dude, as far as I'm concerned, those guys were threatening your and Paige's life. Totally justified use of deadly force." Johnny insists loyally.

"You were right. I was too emotional. I wanted to kill them. All of them. I don't know what happened to me man. Even in the parking lot when that officer cuffed me, I just lost it." Mike has never felt as out of control as he felt at the moment. He had never even known that side of him existed.

"Yeah, I heard they tased you like a dozen times, dude." Johnny laughs, sounding impressed.

"Johnny, it was only three times." Mike corrects him.

"Yeah, well when I tell it, it's going to be a dozen."

"I broke my promise to her. They were loading her into the ambulance, and she didn't want to go, she was scared and god-" Mike blinks back tears at the memory. "I just wanted to hold her, and tell her everything would be alright, and I couldn't and it's just-"

"Dude, you sure you two aren't together?"

"Johnny, for the hundredth time, NO. She's just a friend. Why am I not allowed to care?"

"Whatever man. I'm just saying, you didn't shoot five guys in cold blood when you thought Bello killed me. Hell when I was dead, you just cried."

"Well maybe if you weren't such a pain in the ass, I would go on a killing spree on your behalf." Mike grumbled, wishing Johnny would drive faster. "And you know what? That's not even true. I punched Briggs in the face. Also, I did not cry."

"Yeah, but let's face it, that's something we've all wanted to do at some point. You were just using my death as an excuse to hit him."

"Johnny you weren't dead." Mike rolls his eyes at Johnny's tendency to exaggerate.

"Yeah, well thanks to you, neither is Paige. Thanks man. No matter what the FBI says, you did good work. Yeah you went a little crazy, but she's alive."

"Well we're here. Let's go see our girl." Johnny parks the car, and Mike stares up at the hospital. Now that he's finally here, he's scared to go inside. "Oh and Mike? Try not to attack anyone. Ok, Killer?"


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Notes: Two quick chapters. Once again, minimal editing done before hand. Forgive me.

* * *

"Oh no. You're not going in there looking like that. Go home and take a shower." Charlie instructs Mike upon seeing him walk into the hospital. Smacking Johnny upside the head, she begins to scold him too. "What's wrong with you, bringing him here looking like that?"

"Charlie, I know! But he wanted to come straight here. I wasn't going to be the one to tell him no." Johnny defends himself. Leaning in to Jakes, he whispers loudly, "Honestly Jakes, you should see the other guys."

"What's wrong with you? We gave you one job!" Jakes snaps at Johnny.

"Charlie, please." Mike pleads with her, "I just need to see her."

"Not like that you don't. Have you looked in a mirror? You look like hell." Charlie scolds him. "Go home! Come back when you don't look like a slasher movie villain."

"Everybody chill. We will just clean him up a bit first. We can do that here. Everybody wins." Johnny tells everyone, before turning to stop a young nurse walking by. "Hi there beautiful, would you mind giving my man, Mike, here a sponge bath?"

Mike rolls his eyes, embarrassed by Johnny's inappropriateness.

"I'm sorry. Ignore him." Mike apologizes to the nurse.

"No, he's right. You need to see a doctor. Were you in a car crash sir? Do you have a room?" The nurse asks, eyeing Mike curiously.

Mike catches his reflection in the window behind her. They're right. He does look like hell. He's covered in scratches from the glass, some of which is still embedded in his skin, and there's blood everywhere. In his defense, less than half of it is his.

"Yeah, car crash. I went straight through the windshield." Mike lies cooly, falling back into his undercover role immediately.

"I'm going to go get you some paperwork to fill out." The nurse says, hurrying away.

"Not more damn paperwork." Mike mutters under his breath.

"I'll go find Mikey some clothes!" Johnny chirps, running away from the three stressed agents.

"Mike, just let the doctor fix you up, then go home and get some sleep. Come back fresh and showered in the morning. She'll be sedated. Someone else can wait with her." Charlie says, trying to mother him. "I promise we'll call if there's any news."

"I'm not leaving her." Mike says firmly.

"She won't even know you're gone." Charlie tries to reason with him.

"No she won't, because I'm not going. I'm staying." Mike is not budging on this issue.

"Mike, you can't blame yourself. Go home man." Jakes says from where he's been standing silently in the corner observing.

"I'm not leaving her." Mike says firmly, as the nurse comes back around the corner with the paperwork.

"Come with me sir. We have an exam room ready for you." The nurse instructs.

"In a moment." Mike tells her politely, turning back to Charlie and Jakes he says quietly, "Now I'm going to go take care of this, but make no mistake I am not leaving this hospital until she does."

"Here give me his paperwork." Charlie says to the nurse, giving in to Mike's stubborness. "I'll fill it out for you. Mike, you go get yourself taken care of. I'll text you her room number as soon as she's assigned one."

"Thanks Charlie." Mike says, following the nurse down the hall.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Notes: I'm sure by this point you're all asking yourselves if poor Mike is EVER going to get to see Paige.

* * *

Two hours of glass removal, a box of bandages and two stitches later, Mike is finally washing himself off in the sink of the hospital room he's in.

"Dude, I got you clothes." Johnny tosses some fresh bloodless clothes at Mike as he comes out of the bathroom.

"Johnny what is this?" Mike asks critically holding up what Johnny had found him, "Are these scrubs?"

"The pickings were slim in the guest shop man! Now change quick, the doctor's talking to Charlie. I think Paige finally has a room." Those were the only words Johnny could have said that would make Mike put on this ridiculous outfit.

"You couldn't have found me a man's shirt?" Mike yelled out from the bathroom, looking at the tight pink t-shirt Johnny had gotten him. He decides he's going to wear it inside out.

"No dude the writings the best part!" Johnny complains, seeing how Mike has chosen to wear the shirt. Mike ignores him and heads down the hall to find Charlie with Johnny close behind.

"I'm not wearing a woman's shirt that says 'Save your bumps, feel for lumps' in a hospital Johnny. There are actual breast cancer patients here. Come on man."

"I think they would feel supported. It was either that or a 'Baby on Board' maternity shirt. It was a hospital gift shop son, not the Gap. I did what I could." Johnny defends his choice as he follows Mike towards the room number Charlie had texted.

They see Charlie standing out in the hallway outside the room, chewing on her nails. Down the hall Mike sees Jakes yelling at a nurse.

"Charlie, what's going on? Can we see her?" Mike asks, worried at how shaken Charlie looks.

"They don't know what drugs are in her system, so they're afraid to give her anything other than a light sedative." Charlie explains to Mike and Johnny. "Every time she wakes up she's in such excruciating pain, they sedate her again. Even with the sedatives she doesn't sleep easily."

"What's wrong? Like what's hurting her so bad? Is it just everything?" Johnny asks.

"They think it must be the cracked ribs, because she keeps grabbing her stomach. She's been too out of it to really talk to the doctors, though." Charlie says blankly.

Mike walks over to the door of Paige's hospital room. There are doctors surrounding her, and he knows he can't go in, but he watches what he can through the glass pane of the door. A doctor's back is blocking his view of her face, but he knows it's her.

"Doctors tell you anything yet?" Charlie asks Jakes who walks back over to join them.

"Nothing specific, but if she makes it through the next 48 hours she should be through the worst. Thank God she still had her watch on her." Jakes wraps Charlie in an uncharacteristic hug.

"I know if she hadn't…" Charlie can't finish the sentence.

Through the window of the door, Mike's eyes drift to Paige's delicate wrist. It's bare. There's no watch.

"I'll be right back. If she wakes up, come get me." Mike excuses himself and walks briskly down the hallway.

Mike approaches the nurse's station and puts on his most innocent face. He knows HIPAA law will keep them from releasing information to him, but there's something bothering him.

"Excuse me nurse, my wife is over there in room 236 and I was wondering; the clothes she was wearing when she was admitted, do you have them?"

"We collected some clothes, but the police took them as evidence." The nurse explains.

"Was there a watch included on your inventory?"

"A watch?" The nurse looks confused.

"Yes, a wristwatch. Was there a watch included in the items you collected."

"I'll check her records." The nurse looks down at her chart. "No, I'm sorry sir, there was no watch collected."

"Fuck, Paige!" Mike swears to himself.

_That stupid crazy girl. That brilliant, brave, stupid, stupid woman._

Before he even knows it, he is running down the hallway looking for Paige's doctor. He runs right past his group of friends who look at him like he's lost it. Again.

"Mikey? Mike, what's wrong?" Charlie yells after him as he goes running by looking for a doctor. Any doctor.

"She swallowed it! She swallowed the goddamn watch!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:** WARNINGS: In this chapter, we find a little bit out of what happened to Paige. Warning you, some very dark (albeit clinical and not too graphic) stuff here. I hate putting these specifics in warnings, because it ruins some of the punch of the story, but there are mentions of rape. I clearly don't condone rape but I just can't picture five horrible criminals taking a girl like Paige, stripping her and torturing her without it. It also makes Mike's assassin thing a little more justified, and sets me up nicely for dealing with some complicated issues of trust, guilt, gender and intimacy later on.

"A writer's job is to get your main character up a tree and then throw rocks at them." So don't hate me after this chapter, ok team?

On a lighter note... Who's excited for the season finale tomorrow?!

* * *

**Safe**

"...The extraction went as planned. The wristwatch was in the right iliac fossa. When it failed to progress beyond the terminal ileum we attempted an endoscopic retrieval from the ileo-caecal junction. However do the severity of her other injuries we were hesitant to proceed, so we opted to proceed on a course which required operative intervention for continuing obstructive symptomatology. An enterotomy was performed with extraction of the obstruction followed by primary closure..."

The five agents stare blankly at the doctor.

"Dude, we speak eighteen languages between us and not one of us understood what you just said." Johnny says bluntly. "Now one more time. Tell us exactly what is wrong with Paige. In English."

"We had to use surgery to retrieve the wrist watch. Her other injuries are severe, but should heal. She's broken three fingers on her right hand. Her shoulder is dislocated. She has at least a dozen different visible bite marks, two of which required stitches. She has a burn that required a skin graft on her lower inner thigh. She's has multiple hematomas and lacerations…"

"English!" Johnny barks.

"...she has multiple bruises, cuts, and some internal bleeding. We believe she experienced severe repeat blunt abdominal trauma, resulting in six broken ribs, blood in her urine, and it may have also left a laceration of the spleen. The spleen should heal itself, but we will want to monitor it to make sure it doesn't rupture."

"Did they… did they violate her?" Charlie is the only one brave enough to ask.

"...Her injuries are consistent with rape. We believe she may have been raped multiple times. We have used a rape kit to collect the evidence if it ever goes to trial."

"No…"

"Oh my god…"

"Shit."

Mike feels the bile rising in his throat and swallows it back down. He leans against the wall for support, finding it suddenly difficult to breath. The entire room seems to be spinning.

If only Mike had found her sooner… He killed those men too quickly. If he could go back and do it again, he would make it slower. Make them suffer. If he could go back again, he would have shot Bello the second he met him, to keep him from getting to Paige. God, this is all his fault, how could he drag her into this?

How many times had those bastards touched her before he had gotten there? How could he ever ask for her forgiveness after this?

"Mike? You ok buddy?" Briggs asks him, and Mike shakes his head and forces himself to focus on his Mentor. He needs to be in the present.

The doctor gives him a sympathetic look, "Should I continue?"

Mike just nods. He needs to hear it. All of it.

"When she came in, she was dehydrated, and she cannot seem to keep food down. There was a combination of drugs found in her system. We believe it to be a combination of ecstasy and rohypnol. We'll know more after some more lab results come back. We were hesitant to give her any drugs until we found out what was already in her system, so she's in a lot of pain."

"She looks like her face got a large brunt of it. Is she going to have any cognitive problems as a result?" Briggs asks.

"She has a concussion, but we do not think she will have permanent brain damage. Given the trauma of what has happened, she will probably need therapy for the rest of her life, and may never be able to bear children."

"I can't believe this is happening…" Charlie gasps.

These last words push Mike over the edge. All he can think about is Paige, and her fake baby bump. How beautiful she looked like that. She would never get to experience that in her life for real?

When they'd been standing in the dressing room, and he'd helped her strap it on, she'd given him such a huge smile. The way she touched her stomach had almost made him believe something was in there. It's too much for her to lose. She's already suffered through so much.

Before he knows it, Mike is bent over a trashcan, heaving, tears streaming down his face.

"Mike? You ok?"

"Mike?"

"Mike!"

Once Mike is sure there's nothing left in his stomach to come out, he stands to his feet. He needs to see her. He pushes past the doctor and heads towards her hospital room door.

"Mike, you can't go in there right now. Not like this." Briggs tries to reason with him.

"I need to see her."

"No. Not like this. Mike calm down buddy." Briggs, Johnny and Jakes all rush forward to stop him.

"I can't calm down! Did you hear what those monsters did to her Briggs? It's Paige! How can I be calm?"

"Yeah, I heard what they did to her. I also saw what you did to them. Now I'm not saying they didn't deserve it, but Mike you need to get control of yourself. You're no good to her like this, man."

"IT'S MY FAULT!" The confession that has been weighing on Mike since he first found out she was taken, rips from his lips. Mike stops fighting Johnny and Jakes, and crumbles completely in defeat. Charlie rushes in to wrap him in a hug.

"Mike it's not your fault. It's Bello's and the monsters that did this to her. You did everything you could. You were the one who found her. You saved her. She's strong. She'll come back from this." Briggs promises Mike.

"I just need to see her." Mike says helplessly. "I promised her, Briggs. It's been hours."

"Ok, buddy. Let's go see Paige."


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: So who was embarrassed to read in an interview today that Jeff Eastin apparently reads Mike/Paige fanfiction? *drops head and raises hand* This girl.

Jeff- I'm sorry I'm ruining your characters.

… And with much embarrassment, here is the next chapter!

* * *

**Safe**

Mike sits in a chair next to Paige's hospital bed, his tired head resting on his palm. He stares at the sleeping girl, and replays every memory he has of her in his head. He remembers every fashion disaster, and the way everything she wears is either torn or the wrong size but somehow still looks good. He counts every way his life has changed since he met her.

He sits and replays every drink, every smile, every conversation, every touch, every fight and when he reaches the last conversation they'd had about how much pulp was suitable for orange juice, he goes back to the first night he saw her at the karaoke bar and starts the memories from scratch.

He has to keep his mind occupied somehow, because if he doesn't, it will drift back to the horrific events of the last few days. Mike can't let himself think about that right now. Right now he just has to be patient and wait for her to come back to him, however long that may take. During the waiting period, he needs to stay as sane as he can. He's been in this room for so long, he feels like his pulse is set to the steady beep of her heart monitor.

Paige starts to move, whimpering a little with the effort, and he can see her eyes begin to flutter open.

"Hey there beautiful. How you feeling?" Mike asks, standing up and leaning in so she can see him when she finally opens her eyes.

Paige lets out a moan of pain in response.

"Yeah, well that's an improvement." Mike says, trying to be brave for her.

Paige's hand goes to her side. "I don't remember getting this one. Is it new?" She groans.

"Yeah," Mike says softly. "They had to go in and surgically remove the watch you swallowed. What were you thinking?"

"That you'd find me." Paige says simply.

The words break Mike's heart. He had let her down. If only he'd been faster.

"It looks like yours." Paige says, arching her neck to look down at her new scar. "And to think just a few weeks ago… I was where you are, wishing I was where I am now, instead of you being here... Got my wish. Lucky me..." Paige's words are slurring from the amount of painkillers she's on, and she's somewhat loopy, but Mike understands what she's trying to say. He would take her place in a second to spare her this pain if he could.

"Got any big secrets to tell me that are going to make me storm out of here?" Mike jokes, trying to keep her talking.

Her eyelashes are fluttering on her cheek, and he's afraid she's about to slip back into unconsciousness.

"Spying on anyone? Are you secretly sabotaging Jakes's bird operation? Because it sure is taking him a while. I've closed like six cases and he's still messing with those damn birds." He knows he should let her sleep, but for his own selfish reasons, he wants her to stay awake. "C'mon Paige, talk to me. No bedside confessions?"

"Yep. My confession is, I was wrong... and I'm sorry. You're not a rat. You're a puppy. All cute and loyal. You're so good Mikey... So good… I love you…" She slurs sleepily, "You're a good boy…."

"You are so high right now." He laughs, brushing her hair back from her face.

"Shhh… Don't tell the DEA I'm high. It can be our new secret. We share so many Mikey… and now we even share scars." She reaches out to poke at Mike's stomach.

"Yep. We're twins." He humors her, taking her hand to keep her from poking his still tender stomach.

"Next time we bond, let's do something less extreme. Like maybe matching dolphin tattoos, or those little half heart jewelry things..."

"Ok, sunshine. We'll do that as soon as you feel well enough." Mike would do anything to make sure she smiles again.

"I must really look like shit if you're agreeing to that." Paige's voice takes on a serious edge, and Mike realizes she's not as out of it as she seems. She knows something's wrong. She's playing up the drugged angle to make him smile. She may be heavily medicated, but she's still Paige.

Mike averts his eyes shyly. He doesn't know how to answer her. She looks like she's been through hell and back. She looks bruised, beaten and pale, but just the fact that she survived makes her the most beautiful thing Mike's ever seen. He doesn't know how to tell her that though.

"How long have you been here?" Paige asks.

"Four days." Mike says, looking for any inch of exposed skin he can touch without hurting her.

"You should go home and sleep." She says softly.

"No, don't worry about me. You just get better. I'll be here when you wake up." Mike promises.

"You need to sleep, Mike. Go home." She insists.

He knows he shouldn't argue with her in this state, but he can't leave her. Plus arguing with her feels familiar. It's oddly comforting.

"Not without you. You just get better and then we'll both go home together, ok?" He finds a small corner of her forehead, free from bruises and cuts, and he presses his lips to it gently.

Mike's seen his reflection. He probably looks almost as bad as she does. He's pale, with dark bags under his eyes, and hasn't slept more than an hour since she went missing.

Each time he falls asleep, he's back at that warehouse. Helpless to save her. He wants to stay here for her, but his motives aren't entirely selfless. He still needs proof that she's safe. He's afraid to let her out of his sight again.

"You look tired. You should lie down at least. I'll scoot over." She starts to roll to her side to make room for him in her bed, wincing with pain from the movement.

"Shhh… Don't try to move. I'm fine." He reaches out to tenderly stop her attempts.

"Mike get in bed." She orders, seeming perturbed with his unwillingness to listen to her.

"I don't want to hurt you." Mike doesn't understand why this stubborn girl won't let him be a gentleman. She's injured! She should stop fighting him and just lay down and let him take care of her.

"Mike. Please, get in bed. I don't want to be alone." Tears brim in her eyes and threaten to spill, and Mike immediately springs to his feet, instantly giving up the argument entirely.

If this is for her benefit, he would do anything. Gingerly he climbs up on the hospital cot, sliding in beside her. He feels like there isn't an inch of her he can touch without causing her pain, but he lies on his back, and she rests her head on his arm, curling up to his side with her broken fingers resting on his heart.

"Why did they do this to me, Mike?" She whispers in a small heartbreaking voice. He squeezes his eyes shut. He can't answer her.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Notes:** Thank you all for the kind words and the follows. I appreciate it greatly. You're all too kind. And believe me if the writers of this show actually wanted to hire me or use my ideas I'd be accepting. haha I'm sure they have far better and greater twists planned. I'm excited they got a season 2.

Like I said, sorry for the time it's taking me to update. I do have intentions of finishing this story and possibly doing a companion piece. 

* * *

Four days later, Mike is still lying in the same hospital bed. The past few days they've spent curled up on her cot together. Mike only gets down whenever the nurses come in to yell at him, but even they have come to accept it recently. His roommates bring him changes of clothes, food, and books. Sometimes during visiting hours they come to chat with Paige, but it is Mike who is consistently there.

For the most part, she hasn't been doing anything but sleeping. When she does wake up, she's in pain and heavily medicated, but the last day or two she's seemed to have more energy. After talking to the doctor's, Mike is fairly sure they could go home soon.

Paige hasn't mentioned anything of what happened to her yet, and Mike hasn't had the courage to bring it up. He's consistently watching her for signs of trauma, expecting her to cry or scream at any moment, but he has yet to see any signs of emotional distress. Occasionally she'll grimace in pain from a quick movement or get grumpy from discomfort and boredom, but mostly she just sleeps. Mike passes the time by reading, sometimes aloud to her when she's awake, watching tv and her. Recently they've begun a marathon of watching old Buffy reruns.

"You know, that one cute nurse keeps checking you out." Paige mentions casually as she lays propped up in bed beside Mike, her head resting on his shoulder. He only half listens to her, his eyes focused intently on the television screen.

"Shhh… Commercials are over. I bet this guy's a vampire." Mike silences her, bringing his hand up to habitually stroke her hair.

"How did you get through your childhood without seeing Buffy the Vampire Slayer?"

"We didn't have a tv." Mike says absentmindedly.

"You didn't have a tv?" Paige looks up at him in shock.

"No." He says, eyes still glued to the screen until he feels her stare and looks down at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's just I've never heard about you talk about your childhood before."

"Not much to tell." Mike says, looking back up to the screen.

Mike watches the show with childlike wonderment, but Paige finds it more interesting to watch Mike. His hair is sticking up in all directions, and the scruff on his normally clean shaven face is in danger of becoming an actual beard. He has dark bags under his eyes, made even more noticeable by his pale skin, and his lips are chapped and slightly open as he stares at the tv. He's wearing a tattered grey hoodie and jeans, and he has a mountain of books piled up on her nightstand that he must be reading while she sleeps.

Paige doesn't even want to know what she looks like. She's been too afraid to look in a mirror. The nurse washes and redresses her wounds daily, but she hasn't had a proper shower yet. With no makeup and a smattering of bruises and cuts disfiguring her face, she has to look like the bride of Frankenstein. Whenever she makes any mention of it to Mike though, he says nothing. Just gives her a small smile like she's crazy and places a patronizing kiss on her left temple.

Every time she wakes up he's here. He talks to the nurses, takes notes and sometimes goes chasing after them if he feels they're taking too long with her medication. Most times, Paige finds it easier to fake sleep when the nurses and doctors come in and let Mike deal with it.

One time while 'asleep', she had overheard one of the nurses tell Mike he was the most devoted husband she'd ever seen. To her surprise, Mike hadn't corrected her. The rational side of Paige realized that pretending to be married was probably the only way he was able to spend so much time here, but still hearing Mike refer to Paige as his wife was unsettling. There was something possessive about the way that his tongue wrapped around the word, that made her stomach twist. Paige pushes the memory from her mind, and buries her head back into Mike's side.

At the next commercial break, Mike presses mute and stretches out on the cot. He hasn't gotten out of bed for hours, and his normally active body is not used to all this lying around.

"You know, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to go get a cup of coffee with her or something for a bit. You've done more than enough here." Paige says, watching the muscles in his arms contract as they reach up over his head.

"With who?" He yawns.

"The cute nurse." Paige reminds him.

"You trying to get rid of me?" Mike asks, settling deeper onto the bed next to her.

"You deserve a break, Mike. I'll be fine, you don't need to-"

"I want to." Mike says simply. "And besides, you've got me hooked on this show now. I think that Willow and Xander are going to end up together."

"You can't stay here in bed with me forever. Don't you have work?" She asks, giving him a quizzical look.

"I'm on sabbatical." He says, not able to look her in the eye.

"What? What happened?" Paige hasn't heard this news.

Mike sighs. He doesn't want to have to explain to Paige that he's currently suspended pending investigation into the shooting of her attackers. He hasn't told her all the details of how he found her. He wants her to feel safe, not like she's in bed with a mass murderer. Briggs has assured him, given the circumstances, Mike will not be found guilty of murder. Still, Mike will sleep a lot easier once the investigation is closed.

"Don't worry about it, Paige." He assures her. "Everything will be fine. I'm exactly where I need to be right now. Once the doctors are done monitoring you, we'll get you home, and I'll stop bugging you. I promise. Just put up with me for a few more days."

She looks up at him with an unreadable expression on her face. He kisses her left temple comfortingly, trying to smooth away her worries, and turns his attention back to the tv. She sighs, and snuggles closer against him. Her medicine begins to win the battle of consciousness and she slips off into another restless nap with her head on his chest.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note:** Yay for Long Chapters and lot's of Charlie love. I love writing fights where I think both characters are right.

* * *

**Safe**

"Come on, I want to get out of here and if that's going to happen you need your strength." Mike tries to get Paige to see reason as he sits perched on her hospital bed, armed with a spoon. "You should eat. Here just one bite. Mmmm… jello."

"If you really want me to eat, you'd get me chocolate." She says stubbornly, swatting at him lazily.

"Not after the last time. Remember? Your nurse nearly kicked me out after she found your stash of oreos."

"Maybe I'll do you a favor, leave out some kit-kats then let Richelle try to wrestle you out of here. You know she'd love that. And then we could have a use for all this jello." Paige teases him about Richelle, the sexy young nurse who seems quite taken with Mike.

"Or you could just eat it." Mike tries again in vain to get Paige to eat. "Besides it's not Richelle who threatened me. It was Nancy. I'm not even sure she's a woman..."

"She does have some rather impressive biceps." Paige laughs.

"And an impressive adam's apple." Mike says making a face at the thought of jello wrestling with Nancy. The woman scared the hell out of him. Yes, he was certain Paige's large norwegian nurse could tear Mike apart with her bare manish hands.

"Mmmm jello. Lime jello…" Mike waves the spoon around in front of her face, trying to make it seem more enticing.

"My other hand works you know." She says, rolling her eyes at Mike's insistence on treating her like a small child.

"And yet my hand is the one holding the spoon." Mike says smugly. "Come on, open up."

"I am so sick of jello!" She complains. Mike spoons the jello into her mouth midprotest.

"You're such a baby." He teases her. "See it's not that bad right? If you stopped whining so much and just ate it the first time, this could all be over much quicker." She sticks her now green tongue out at him. It she ever gets out of here she's never eating jello again.

"You two are adorable." Charlie says from where she's sitting in a chair in the corner, watching the two bicker on the cot that seems to have become their own private island. Mike's embarrassed to realize that, up until this moment, he had forgotten Charlie was even in the room.

"Alright, I'll try to smuggle you in something choclatey from the vending machine, but remember, if you get caught again, and Nancy finds out... I'm blaming Johnny." Mike stands up and stretches. His back is stiff from all the hours he's spent lying there with Paige. In what's become a bit of a habit, he leans in and gives her a friendly kiss goodbye on her left temple.

Just then, Richelle comes in to check on Paige's bandages and Mike quickly excuses himself from the room, nodding politely to Richelle as he passes her. Charlie stands up to follow Mike out.

"Hey babe, I'm gonna be right back. I just want a word with Mikey." Charlie tells Paige.

"Convince him to let me go outside today! I've forgotten what color the ocean is." He hears Paige's voice call out.

"It's blue. And it's not me. It's the doctors." Mike says, leaning in Paige's doorway.

"You checked yourself out against doctor's orders." She reminds him as the nurse removes the bandage covering the skin graft on Paige's leg.

"Yeah, well I'm an idiot." Mike politely averts his eyes from the angry red welt burned into the tender pink flesh of Paige's inner thigh. His fists clench in anger at his sides just from thinking of the wound and how it got there. Since Paige has yet to mention any details about her abduction he can only assume the worst. He turns to the nurse and instructs her, "Watch her. She may make a run for it."

"With all this damage, I don't think she'd get very far." Richelle says, giving Mike a flirtacious smile.

"You don't need to talk about me like I'm not in the room." Paige huffs. "If you two would like some privacy, I can gladly leave."

"Ignore her. She's just hangry." Mike apologizes for Paige's temper to the nurse, before shooting her a playful look. "I think some more jello might cheer her up..."

Paige throws a balled up napkin at him and he ducks out the door laughing. Mike walks across the hall to the vending machine with Charlie walking silently beside him. It feels good to stretch his legs, but he feels uncomfortable letting Paige out of his sight.

"Don't give me that look." Mike says to Charlie, not even needing to look at her face to know exactly what look, as he puts money in the vending machine.

"I didn't say anything." Charlie smirks at him.

"That's because there's nothing to say." Mike says grabbing the bottle of water.

"Listen. I want you to take a break." Charlie says.

Mike begins to protest, but Charlie cuts him off.

"Look hero, I don't want you to take a break for you. Take a break for her. Give her some privacy. Give her some time to miss you. Just stay away for an hour or so. Take in some sunshine. Have a beer. Shave." She pats his cheek.

Mike rubs his beard, thinking over Charlie's words. He doesn't need any time apart, but he wonders if Paige does. Is she feeling smothered?

He's not leaving this hospital without her, but if she needs space he can go haunt the gift shop for a while.

"Tell her I have my phone if she needs anything." Mike finally concedes.

"You're not even going to leave the hospital are you?" Charlie asks.

"Nope." Mike says stubbornly, putting more quarters in the machine.

"You got it bad…" Charlie grins.

"Stop saying stuff like that. She's going to hear you and take it the wrong way." Mike is really starting to get bothered with all of this gossip. It was awkward before, but now it just seems blasphemous.

"You don't think you being here twenty-four-seven is clueing her in that you might have a little crush?" Charlie crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow.

"It's not like that. She's just..."

"Your wife." Charlie finishes for him.

"Look, I don't want to make her uncomfortable, ok? She's been through too much. So could you please just not make a big deal out of this?" Mike begs Charlie, rubbing the back of his neck agitatedly. "She doesn't need to think of me like that. I mean, I'm sleeping in her bed and I don't want her to worry that I'm getting off on it or anything-"

"Aren't you?"

"Of course not! I just want to make sure she's safe. I don't want to fuck her, Charlie." Mike is starting to get pissed. Why does no one believe that he just wants to take care of her.

"What if she wants you to?" Charlie asks bluntly.

"She doesn't! Christ! Stop it." Mike is horrified Charlie could even say that after what happened to Paige. "Look, she's been through hell, and it's because of me. I'm just trying to be there for her. That's it. I have no ulterior romantic motives."

"Look I'm just saying this 'thing' you two are doing? You need to figure out what it is, and talk to her about it."

"Charlie-" Mike begins to protest, but Charlie is in full out lecture mode and will not be interrupted.

"No, I'm not done. She's a grown woman. She is the same woman you knew before all of this happened, and eventually she's going to want more. So you can't keep giving her this 'pseudo relationship' crap, pretending you're protecting her, when really you're just too chicken shit to man up and admit you're in love with the girl."

"For the last time, I'm not in love with-" Mike laughs and rolls his eyes. This is getting ridiculous.

"Don't you lie to me Levi. I was there at the club, I saw the look on your face when you first saw her."

"That was different-" Mike says uncomfortably. Sure he had a crush on Paige when he first met her, but they'd been through so much since then. Fights, Abby, secrets and now this… She wasn't just a pretty girl he met in a bar, who he could fantasize about taking roughly in the bathroom stall. She was Paige now and she was hurt and she needed him.

"Listen to me. Just because you desire her does not make you the same as those bastards who raped her, and if you don't see that then you're screwed." Charlie says as if she's reading Mike's mind. "Because I have known that girl for years and I have seen her deal with a lot of shit from men. And let me tell you, she is strong, resilient and this will not break her."

"Everyone keeps saying that, but the doctor's haven't even signed the release papers. She can barely get out of bed, and she's still bleeding from tearing from when they forced-" Mike can't even bring himself to finish the sentence. "She doesn't need a lover, she needs a friend. And I'm sick of everyone implying I'm feeling her up under her hospital gown!"

"No one's saying that. But you always being there, the way you hold her when she sleeps, that's not something friends do. It's confusing for a girl. Hell it's confusing for the rest of us! What are you going to do when she wants to start dating again?" Charlie asks a question that never crossed Mike's mind. It should be common sense though, eventually she would want to start dating again, but that was so far off in the future it didn't even matter right now.

"Then I'll stand back and let her date whoever she wants! I can't worry about that now, Charlie. She's not there yet! She's not thinking about any of this. She knows I'm just a friend, it's all of you who can't get it through your heads."

"What? You think you being all sweet and attentive is going to have no affect on her?" Charlie demands protectively, "She's tough but she's not made of stone. You don't think she's gonna go all florence nightengale on you?"

"Ok, first you're using that phrase wrong. It actually means the opposite. Second, sex is the farthest thing from her mind. You heard the doctor. Years of therapy."

"Listen Mr. Know-It-All. I know Paige. That woman loves sex. She's gonna want it again, and she's not going to wait years to get it. Now I want to see her, for once, have sex with a man who appreciates how fucking amazing she is. But I promise you Levi, if you don't get your act together, there's a whole truckload of degenerates lined up to take your place."

"You think I don't know all that?!" Mike yells at Charlie, getting stressed just from the thought of it. Running his hand down his face he takes a deep breath and calms himself down. In an even, but firm voice he states very clearly, "Look, she has just suffered a massive tragedy that would make anyone lose faith in humanity, and right now she just needs someone she can trust. I can't worry about how I'll feel when she starts dating again, because how I feel doesn't matter. It's how she feels. And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure she feels safe again."

"Fine you idiot. But you're going to do it somewhere else for now. Give that girl some space. I'm going back in that room, and I swear to God if you even stick your head in there before I come out, I will throw you through a window myself." Charlie threatens, turning around and storming back towards Paige's room, leaving Mike feeling lost in the hallway.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Notes:** And now we get some Briggs time. I really like writing the other characters, it's just hard to fit everyone into one plot sometimes, but I like seeing all the different views. Obviously Mike gets the most time because he's the shows protagonist. For this story being about Paige, so far we really have seen very little of her so far.

Thanks so much for all the kind reviews! I love hearing what everyone thinks of the chapters, characters, and your hypothesis on where I'm going with this (there's a rough sketch).

* * *

Mike looks down at the text he has just received from Paige _'Charlie brought full DVD Buffy set. Yay 4 no more ads! Hurry back! Bring chocolate!'_

Mike doesn't write back, for fear this would violate the boundaries Charlie set up. He spins the carton of chocolate pudding he had for Paige absentmindedly in his hand as he rereads the text. There was no hint that Paige viewed him any differently. Apparently Charlie was only lecturing him, not Paige, which was good. She had enough to worry about. She didn't need to worry about Mike.

Mike couldn't understand why everyone wasn't taking this more seriously, including Paige. Everyone was so focused on his behavior that no one was talking about what had actually happened to Paige. Now that the doctor's seemed content that she was healing properly, everyone seemed to be pretending it never happened.

Mike hadn't pushed Paige to talk about anything, but he had assumed she would eventually open up to him about what happened. It's not that she hadn't had plenty of chances by this point. The last few days they had spent every minute together, and much of that time they had been alone together. She could have told him. Yet their conversations had been mostly light. She would occasionally complain about her physical symptoms, but not how they got there.

On the other hand, every day she was sleeping a little less, needing a little less medication, and seemed to be healing. Now that she was awake more, she was starting to get bored and restless to leave. Mike tried to keep her entertained while simultaneously keeping her in bed. Their most recent game was her drawing on Mike with permanent marker. He looked down at the design she had drawn on his wrist, smiling at the memory of the look of intense concentration on her face while she tattooed him. He had similar marks all over his body by now, she had gotten really bored, but the wrist was the only one he could really look at in public.

"You're looking better."

"Oh yeah?" Mike looks up to see Briggs standing next to the bench Mike was sitting on.

"Yeah. Happier." Briggs says, giving him an assessing look.

"Imagine how good I'll look once I'm out of this hospital. I think all this fluorescent lighting is somehow making me paler." Mike smiles grimly, leaning against the hallway wall, keeping a watchful eye on Paige's door across the way.

"You could come home, you know. Any one of us would take over."

"You know I can't." Mike doesn't need to say anything more. Not to Briggs at least.

"Yeah, I know man." Briggs sighs. Briggs understands guilt better than anyone. He knows Mike will be haunted by this for the rest of his life. Mike will never be able to feel like he's made it up to Paige, no matter what he does. Briggs feels sorry for the kid. "I also know it won't help if I say it wasn't your fault, but I'm going to say it anyways."

"Besides, I'm on probation, remember?" Mike shrugs, changing the subject. "What would I do all day at home? At least here I can be entertained."

Briggs laughs and nods in agreement as the two stare around the hospital hallway outside of Paige's room looking at all the activity. The nurses gossiping with each other, and not so covertly looking over at the two handsome men. The Doctor's drinking coffee and pouring over charts. The various wounds and injuries they see on different patients being wheeled through the halls.

"That guy for example… What do you think his story is?" Mike gestures to a dark man on a gurney, screaming in a foreign language, who the orderlies are rushing to restrain.

"Well, admittedly Jakes has a better grasp of the Niger-Congo languages, but he does seem to be shouting 'dick' and 'bitch' a lot. Probably tourettes." Briggs grins.

Mike stares up at his mentor impressed that he can even recognize the language orgin. Briggs is just in a class of his own. Mike wonders if he'll ever be that good.

"Still, I didn't get the impression you were leaving the room much, Mike." Briggs is digging in his casual way, if Mike didn't know Briggs so well he wouldn't even know he was being questioned. "I'm surprised you haven't asked to be hooked up to a catheter yourself."

Mike knows what Briggs is implying. He decides just to be honest with Briggs. "I keep having these dreams. Of finding her there. Of being too late. I just need to make sure she's safe."

"You're not going to be able to do this forever Mike."

"No, I know." Mike says, looking down at his shoes. "Once I get her home, everything will go back to normal."

"You sure about that?"

"Of course. Once she's healed and we're back home it'll be fine. I just need some more time…" Mike's not sure who he's trying to convince, Briggs or himself.

He tells himself this desperate need he feels to see Paige all the time, to protect her, has to fade eventually. It's a natural reaction after almost losing her. It's just because they're in a hospital, instead of their own beds, that Mike can't sleep without feeling her heartbeat against his side. When they get back to Graceland and their own separate beds, things will go back to the way before. Mike's suddenly filled with a strong desire to see her again but stays rooted where he is next to Briggs, sipping his water and eyeing the door.

"So why are you sitting alone in the hallway then? You two have a fight?" Briggs asks, seeing the way Mike is eyeing her door.

"No. Charlie wanted some girl time. She kicked me out and said if I tried to get back in before she left, she would throw me through the window herself. I'm not entirely sure she was kidding. She's terrifying." Mike says, he looks down at his watch anxiously. It hasn't even been an hour, but it feels like an eternity.

"Yeah, Charlie's a piece of work." Briggs agrees. "All for the better you're not in there man. There are secrets of women that we men are just not meant to know."

Mike just stares at the door. Briggs can tell he's losing Mike's attention to thoughts of what horrible secrets Paige might now possess about the kidnapping. He's getting that tortured look in his eyes.

"Mike, buddy. Johnny and I were going to meet up at the bar across the street. Come join us for a beer, real quick. You won't even officially leave hospital grounds. They're gonna be in there for a while yet. Those two girls can gab."

"No thanks. I'm good here." Mike says.

"Yeah ok, man." Briggs takes another long look at Mike. He's propped up against the wall, pale and tired and looks like he's dropped ten pounds since being here. He keeps his focused gaze directed at Paige's door, waiting patiently to be reunited with her.

"Hey, you know Johnny's usually late anyways. You mind if I wait here with you for a bit?" Briggs asks, joining Mike on the bench. Mike just shrugs, not even looking back over to Briggs.

"She's going to be ok, you know." Briggs assures Mike.

"Yeah, I know." Mike says, but his voice doesn't sound convinced. The two men sit in silence in the hallway as time marches on until Charlie finally emerges and motions that Mike can come back in.

Mike stands to go, but Briggs stops him. "Hey Mike? I'm kind of late for my meet up with Johnny. Can you make sure Paige gets these? Don't tell her they're from me though."

Mike looks suspiciously at the flowers, that he up until now didn't notice Briggs had. The paranoid side of him wonders what Briggs is up to, if he's trying to bug the room or something. "What should I tell her then?"

"Just say you went down to the gift shop and thought she might like them." Briggs shrugs.


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Notes: Yes the last chapter was somewhat slow, but was really necessary. (We'll find out in a couple chapters why, in a line that is one of my favorites ever said about Mike.) There is a plan for this story. I've still got some twists left. Have to kick both poor Mike and Paige a little more, I know a lot of you are getting sick of the build up, but I love build up, secrets, twists, misunderstandings and different POVs causing trouble.

I love reading all the theories on what's going to happen. Some of them I think are unfortunately more clever than what I'm actually writing.

* * *

"So is my banishment done?" Mike rolls his eyes at Charlie.

"See you stayed away for an hour and she's still alive." Charlie just smiles up at him knowingly.

"Yeah, yeah. I stayed away. Are you happy? Can we drop it now?" Mike asks hoping that now that he's proven he CAN leave, everyone will just let him be.

"I've said my piece." Charlie holds up her arms in defense. It's not an apology for what she said to him, but hopefully she will stop mentioning it. It will have to do for now.

"You coming back in?" Mike asks her.

"Not tonight. Visiting hours are almost over and unlike some people, I have a life." Charlie says smugly, walking away to join Briggs, waving to Mike as the two exit. Briggs casually throws an arm over Charlie's shoulder and she wraps her arm around his waist as they walk out together. Mike rolls his eyes. No one ever teases those two of having an inappropriately close friendship. They make Mike and Paige look like siblings in comparison.

After being given the 'ok' from Charlie, Mike heads back to Paige's room armed with flowers and pudding.

"Alright, I had to pay the attending an exorbitant bribe, but I managed to secure you the last of the chocolate puddings… wow." Mike's voice dies in his throat.

Sitting up in the hospital cot is Paige. Not the injured, drugged, invalid he's been caring for the past few days, but his Paige. Her hair is clean and brushed rather than tossed up in a greasy ponytail. She's got makeup on and is wearing a pink zip up hoodie over her hospital gown. She looks more fresh and alert than he's seen her in weeks. Mike can barely see the bruises on her face, and the rest of her bruised body is covered by either her sweatshirt or the blanket. Mike doesn't even know how this drastic of a change could come about in an hour.

"Yeah, Charlie helped me shower and do my hair. I actually look human again." She shrugs modestly, clearly pleased to be feeling pretty again. Seeing his reaction puts a shy smile on her face that lights up her green eyes.

"Yeah… you look… nice." Mike finishes lamely. He looks down at the flowers in his hands flustered. "Oh, Briggs wanted you to have these."

"Is Paul coming in?" Paige asks, looking at the doorway behind Mike expectantly for Briggs.

"No. I can go run and grab him if you want." Mike offers.

He completely forgot that Briggs told him to lie, and is just now realizing that Briggs wanted MIKE to give her the flowers. He's suddenly pissed at Briggs. Even he's trying to set them up, why couldn't everyone just accept they were only friends, and just let it drop? Paige did not need this right now, she just needed a friend.

"No, it's ok. I'm sure I'll see him later. Come here." Paige scoots over to make room for Mike in his usual spot. She chirps cheerfully, "I've missed you."

Mike puts the flowers down, and walks back over to the cot. He's not sure if it's the time apart, the lecture from Charlie, or the fact that she's all made-up, but he suddenly feels nervous around her. Sitting on her bed feels strangely intimate.

He sits on the edge of the cot, and she sits close beside him, smiling widely, tossing her now clean brushed hair over her shoulder.

"Charlie tried to even me out, to hide the black eye, but I think I just kind of look like a racoon." She laughs, closing her eyes and leaning in so Mike can admire Charlie's makeup skills.

Mike stares at the smokey eye makeup, the soft blush on her cheeks and the shine of her lipgloss. She looks like Paige again, and the soft scent of perfume yanks him back to ocean nights sitting beside her on the beach. With her eyes closed and her leaning so close, Mike feels his heart speed up in his chest. He reaches out and cradles her face with one hand staring down and the girl he knew before this all happened, feeling a strange joy to have finally found her again.

Without thinking, his thumb swipes over her lower lip gently as he cradles her cheek in his hand. Her eyes open, smudged dark with eyeliner, and the contrast between the black and green takes his breath away. He finds himself leaning in closer, his nose bumping against hers, his breath coming out in ragged gasps and she closes her eyes in anticipation.

It's as if the disappearance of her eyes breaks the spell. Suddenly Mike's brain returns to him. Mike stares at her trusting expression, eyes closed, lips parted and he wonders how she can trust anyone, least of all him, after all she's been through. This is wrong. He can't do this. Not after all she's suffered. She's vulnerable, and he can't take advantage of that in this way. He can't let himself do what those monsters did to her.

He has to let her know she's safe with him, no matter what.

So with trembling lips, he tilts her chin down and lays a chaste kiss on her left temple. She pulls away with a confused look on her face. He avoids her questioning eyes and reaches for the remote. Turning on the DVD and laying on his back, he brings her to his side to rest her head against his chest. The two lay in silence and watch the glow of the tv, each lost in their own thoughts.

When it's time to switch the disc, and Mike can hide in the silence no longer, he finally clears his throat and says, "Hey. Can I talk to you about something?"

"Uh-oh. That's a serious tone…" Paige looks up at him like she's in trouble.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't want to, but I just think we need to have this conversation." Mike says, rubbing his neck nervously.

"Yeah, of course. Do me a favor first?" Paige says, sitting up so she's no longer laying on his chest.

"What?" He asks.

"Can you look the other way, so I can pretend to fall asleep and avoid it?"

"Paige," He rolls his eyes at her. "Look there's this big elephant in the room, and I think it just might be better if we just talked about it."

"Ok, well you've kind of got me hostage here."

Mike winces at her choice of words, and she instantly tries to correct herself.

"I mean, I can't exactly run away." Paige holds up her arm which is attached to an IV. "What's up?"

Mike tries to find the proper way to say this. Failing to find a poetic way to put it, he decides to just say it.

"What happened to you?" Mike's intelligent eyes focus on her intently, like he's trying to peer into her soul. "When you were taken, I was out of my mind with worry, and I know a little from the doctor's but I need to hear it from you. What happened, Paige?"

"I… um…" Paige looks down at her hands, his stare making her self-conscious. She twists the sheets nervously between her fingers.

"You once told me I could trust you. That you were on my side. You know that goes both ways right? I'm on your side Paige, and I've been trying to show you that. I want you to feel like you can talk to me." He continues.

Paige doesn't answer immediately and Mike's heart drops. He wants her to feel like she can tell him anything, the secrets between them are killing him.

"Look I know it might be uncomfortable for you to talk about, and I hate making you relive anything traumatic, but what happened to you? What did they do to you?"

"I don't really remember. I mean, last thing I remember, they grabbed me off the street outside the Red Line, and then I woke up here in the hospital with you."

"You don't remember any of it?" Mike was not expecting this answer, but it made sense. Maybe the way she was dealing with it so well was that she truly wasn't thinking about it.

"No, I was walking over to the Red Line and I was looking in my purse and these six guys jumped out and chloroformed me." Paige explains."They gave me a lot of drugs and the whole thing's just kind of a blur. Nothing too clear"

"You don't remember the rescue or anything?" Mike asks. It seems like too much to hope that she doesn't remember him as a blood drenched killer, but she just shakes her head no. Mike remembers how huge her pupils had been dilated. She had been really drugged and out of it when he found her.

"Sorry, I wish I had more to tell you." She shrugs.

"Don't be sorry." Mike hugs her to him tightly nearly forgetting her injuries, laying a firm kiss to her forehead. Mike thanks God that she wouldn't have to live with those memories. "You have nothing to be sorry about."

"Is that all?" Paige asks, pulling away slightly from where he had her pressed to his chest to look up at his eyes. "That's all you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes." Mike says, feeling like a weight's been taken off his chest. The other stuff can wait. She's safe and that's all that matters. "Yes, that's all."


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Note: Kind of wrote this chapter in a hurry just because I wanted to get SOMETHING posted. Lots going on in the real world, very little time to write. I actually divided this chapter into two parts to post this, so at least the next chapter is half written. Hopefully I shall get it up in the next few days.

* * *

**Safe**

Mike is lying across the hospital bed on his stomach. His shirt is hiked up slightly, and he's feeling somewhat exposed. The fact that he's doing this, just proves to himself that he's unable to deny Paige anything when she puts on that pouty face. If this was what would keep her in bed, he'd do it. Besides, once he gets past the initial weirdness, it feels kind of good.

Paige is straddling Mike's legs, permanent marker in hand, resting her arm on his ass. She slowly traces patterns, drawing what he's sure is a very intricate and humiliating tramp stamp on his lower back. She hums softly to herself as she concentrates on her art. The repetitive strokes of the pen on his skin and the relative quiet of the hospital at night is lulling him to sleep. The intelligent part of his brain knows if he falls asleep leaving her unmonitored while she has her hands on a permanent marker he'll ultimately regret it, but he still finds himself drifting off.

Sleep is just wrapping around Mike when he feels Paige's thighs clench around him. That, and the terrified scream of his name, is the only warning he get's before he's suddenly thrown face first from the bed.

He hits the floor hard, landing roughly in a tangled pile with Paige. She's thrown him from the bed and has taken the whole damn thing over on it's side with them. She winces in pain as she struggles to sit up. Mike is instantly in high alert, reaching for her, wanting to make sure she's not injured, but she quickly scrambles to a seated position hiding behind the bed which is laying on it's side like a barricade beside them.

The bed made a terrible racket when it clattered to the floor, but it still didn't drown out the gun shots. Mike is still not sure what's going on, who would be shooting in a hospital? His hand instinctively reaches for his gun. Not finding it at his hip, his panicked eyes fly to Paige's and the two exchange horrified looks. He hears more shots being fired and he doesn't know where they're coming from.

Before he can stop her, Paige grabs a handful of needles that have scattered across the floor, and throws them like darts over the bed. More gunshots are fired, and Mike grabs her and pulls her back down before she can get herself shot, covering her with his body against the bed. What the hell was she expecting she was going to accomplish using needles against bullets?

"Your gun's on the nightstand." Paige says, and he realizes she was using the needles more as a distraction to get a chance to survey the room, rather than an actual weapon.

"I'll get it." Mike poses to jump up, but Paige grabs him and pulls him back up. "There's no time. At this short of a range, he'll kill you."

"I can do it. We're in a hospital, if I get shot…" Mike says determinedly. The steel frame of the bed won't protect them forever. He needs to do something quick.

"Wait until I can provide a distraction-" Paige begins to say, but Mike cuts her off.

"NO!" Mike will shoot down any idea involving her immediately. She should do nothing but hide here and stay safe. He will not lose her. "Paige, you stay down. I can get to the gun."

"Mike, both at the same time. I'll distract him." She's holding tightly onto his neck, keeping Mike from making a sudden lunge for the gun.

"No! You're not being bait. Wait until he moves on to another room." There was still a chance this was a random act of violence and the shooter was just looking to go on a killing spree. He hadn't seen the killer, but with Bello dead Mike couldn't think of anyone else who would want him dead.

"Mike trust me, he's here for me. Just stay down." Paige says, wrapping around him as best she can to keep him from doing something stupid.

"Why would he be here for you?" Mike demands. She's not making any sense to him. They're running out of time. If he could just get to his gun.

"Because I'm the one who put the dickless bastard is in the hospital!" Paige yells in frustration.

"What?!" Mike doesn't even understand what she's saying. Who is this guy and why is he shooting at them? How was Paige involved?

"Wa sibi agaracha..." The shooter taunts from the doorway in a language Mike doesn't understand.

"You stay here for now. He's already fired thirteen shots." Paige says. "That means, if he's got a 16 magazine he's only got three shots left before he needs to reload."

"What if it's a twenty?" Mike asks.

"Well then we're screwed. When he stops to reload, I'll distract him. You grab your gun."

"Paige, I won't let you get yourself killed." Mike pleads with her, staring into her eyes and trying to get her to see reason. She's injured and he needs to protect her.

"Well I won't let you die either." She says just as stubbornly, her nails digging into his neck.

"Paige…" Mike begs.

"Look we either both go and take a fifty-fifty shot, or we wait for him to reload and come over the bed and hope he doesn't shoot us before we can tackle him." Paige says practically, her professional cool-under-pressure demeanor shining through. She doesn't even flinch when the next bullet echos through the hospital room.

Mike stares at her determined expression. Not feeling good about these options he leans forward and lays a rough kiss on her forehead. He pulls back and stares into her eyes. "No dying." He orders.

"Yes sir." She nods at him, grinning. Mike knows that grin. He doesn't like that grin. That's a 'let's do something kamikazee stupid' grin.

He sighs in frustration. "Count of three."

"One… Two… Three!"

On Mike's count the two agents leap up from behind the bed. Paige throws a bedpan at the shooter, and Mike lunges for the gun on the nightstand. Before Mike can reach his weapon, a gunshot rings out.

"NO!" Mike doesn't even feel the word leaving his throat. He just hears it echoing in the air. He turns to see Paige has fallen behind the back behind the bed. Mike grabs the gun and drops down beside where she's lying on the floor. Forgetting the attacker on the other side of the bed, his eyes and hands rake desperately over her body searching for a gunshot wound. He sees no blood, but she's white as a sheet, eyes squeezed shut holding her left side.

"Paige? PAIGE? Did he get you? Are you ok?" Mike kneels on the ground, holding her in his arms, searching her body for a gunshot wound.

"Mike, I think I need a doctor." Paige gasps weakly just before her eyes roll back and she loses consciousness.

"Paige. PAIGE!" Mike's mind is racing. "No, no, no. Paige, you promised. Don't die. Paige wakeup."

He has to get her help. With shaking hands, Mike grabs the gun beside him and leans back against the bed, preparing to strike. He hasn't heard any activity from the other side of the bed since Paige dropped down, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're safe. The shooter could just be waiting... Taking a deep breath, and one last look at Paige, Mike switches off the safety, stands up, and fires.


	17. Chapter 17

Author's Notes: So I'm finding a lot of my writing of some of the future chapters are coming from Paige's POV. I'm not quite sure whether to rewrite them from Mike's POV, to allow some Paige POV to creep into this story, or just to end the story from Mike's POV and write from Paige's or do an every other chapter sort of thing. I'm hesitant to completely give up Mike's POV because it really is HIS story, and Paige has some pretty rough stuff that I think needs to be filtered through Mike for the reader because it's just too raw on it's own. Any thoughts?

My next chapter I'm writing may be my favorite, but I think it's just because I have a strange sense of humor... I'm not sure it will transfer well to the page based off of the scene I see in my head.

* * *

"Everyone ok in here? Mike? Paige?"

Mike recognizes the voice and tries to stop himself, but he's already firing his gun. The best he can do is jerk back in response and the bullet flies into the ceiling above Johnny's head.

"What the fuck Mike! Did you just almost shoot me?!" Johnny yells in surprise.

Mike has never been so glad to see Johnny in his whole life. Given that Mike just almost shot him, Johnny is less than thrilled to see Mike.

"Johnny, oh my god man! It's Paige, she's hurt. Quick! Grab a doctor!" Mike orders him. He can't see where the shooter is, but he can't think about that right now. Paige needs help.

"You almost shot me!" Mike can't believe Johnny is so hung up on this small detail. Paige is hurt! There's a shooter on the loose! The bullet didn't even graze him.

"Johnny!" Mike tries to get his pissed off roommate to focus. "Get a damn doctor!"

"We're not done talking about this!" Johnny warns him as he turns and runs down the hallway to find a doctor. Mike kneels beside Paige, cradling her head in his lap, stroking her hair praying she'll wake up to him.

A minute later, two nurses and a doctor come rushing into the room and put Paige on a gurney. Mike once again feels helpless to do anything as he watches them load Paige's motionless body on to the cart.

"She just collapsed. I couldn't find a bullet wound. She was fine and then we fell off the bed and she was fine, and then she was just on the ground…" Mike explains helplessly. He wants to do something. He wants to touch her, to wake her up, but he knows he needs to stand back and let the doctor's work.

"She's in shock!" "The fall probably ruptured her spleen." "She needs surgery." "Prep the OR. We're bringing her down right now." The nurses and doctors are all talking so fast, Mike is having trouble catching what they're saying.

Mike starts to follow Paige down the hall as they rush her away but Johnny and Briggs stop him.

"Was she shot?" Briggs asks, holding onto Mike to keep him from chasing Paige.

"I don't think so. The doctors think she may have ruptured her spleen. I don't know what happened. She was fine. We were fine. We were lying together in bed and then all of a sudden-" Mike's eyes darken over as he remembers what happened. "Where is he?"

"I shot him man." Johnny says confidently. "I was coming to visit Paige and I heard gunshots, and saw the shooter standing in your doorway."

Mike tries to process everything Johnny's saying, but so much has happened in the last five minutes he's having trouble keeping it all straight. Briggs, is apparently also needing to catch up on facts. "So what did I just miss? Where's Paige? Who did Johnny shoot?"

"So the gunshot I heard that was you shooting the shooter, not Paige getting shot… But then why did she drop to the ground? Right she's in shock, she must have ruptured her spleen when we fell from the bed, and the adrenaline kept her from noticing until she passed out from too much blood loss. The guy was gunning for Paige, she must have recognized him immediately before he could take aim..." Mike mumbles to himself like a crazy person, trying to make sense of all this information.

If Paige were here this is when she would tell him to stop thinking and breathe, but she's not here and Briggs seems to be following Mike's madness. Johnny just seems worried.

"So who was the guy?" Briggs asks.

"I don't know! I didn't see him. I was asleep in bed with her, and then all of a sudden I was on the ground being shot at." Mike growls in frustration. He needs to figure out what just happened, but Paige is hurt and she might die and his thoughts keep veering back to her pale lifeless body.

"Did you hear him at all?" Briggs asks.

"Yeah, but I couldn't understand what he was saying." Mike is having trouble thinking straight. He needed to do SOMETHING he just didn't know what. "Johnny you're sure you shot him?"

"Yeah man, I may not be quite at the same assassin level as you, but I'm pretty sure I know when I shoot a guy. I got his shoulder. They're stitching him up right now." Johnny says.

"Wait, he's still alive?" Mike's head jerks up. This is something he can do. He can kill the bastard.

"Yeah, I only wounded him. Don't worry, he's disarmed him and cuffed in police custody. Once they finish with him they're taking him to jail. Speaking of which, the police are going to want statements, are you up to giving one- YO MIKE! Where you going?!" Johnny yells after him, already knowing the answer as Mike takes off running down the hall.

Johnny and Briggs exchange a look.

"We gotta get him man. You're the fast one." Briggs says to Johnny..

"Yeah, but he's armed and pissed. Dammit Mike!" Johnny takes off running after Mike, swearing under his breath. Briggs knows already where Mike is heading so he heads off in another direction.

Johnny tackles Mike in the hallway, trying to get his gun out of his hand. "Get off me Johnny! This doesn't involve you!" Mike growls like an animal, wrestling to get out from under Johnny. "Mike just calm down! Let go of the gun! I'm not having you shoot at me twice today!"

"Get off of me!" Mike screams.

"You're not killing him! You're already suspended!" Johnny tries to talk some reason into Mike as he tries to disarm him.

"I don't care!" Mike is determined. The bastard tried to kill Paige, she might be dying somewhere because of him and this was the one thing he could do.

"Johnny hold him still!" Briggs catches up to the two grown men flailing around on the floor. Briggs takes the syringe from the scared nurse standing beside him, now armed with a sedative.

"Briggs don't you dare!" Mike tries to squirm free, seeing the needle in Brigg's hands.

"It's for your own good buddy." And with the expertise of an exheroin addict, Briggs shoots Mike up with a sedative. Mike continues to struggle until finally the drug wins, causing him to pass out in Johnny's arms.


	18. Chapter 18

Authors Notes: So I've got a rough draft of this story kind of done, would anyone be willing to read it over for me and just give me some notes on whether or note everything was flowing right and discuss character motivations etc and why things are being written the way they are? I mean it would ruin any reading of the story, because it's going to give away some main plot twists, but I think I need to talk some points over with someone and make sure what I want to come across is coming across.

Thanks for the reviews! I appreciate each one. This chapter made me giggle because I'm immature. Hopefully you enjoy it.

* * *

When Mike comes to, his first thought is his arms hurt. He tries to reach down to rub his tired face, but he's unable to lower his hands. Opening his eyes he tries to adjust to the dark room he's in. He appears to be slumped on a box of some sort, but his hands are cuffed to a pipe above his head. Mike tries to remember how he got here but the sedative in his blood is making his thought process cloudy… oh that's right. "Briggs." Mike groans, remembering how his mentor had drugged him. This whole situation is classic Briggs.

"Morning Mikey." As if on cue, Mike realizes Briggs is here, talking way too chipperly as Mike's blood pounds in his ears trying to clear his body of the effects of the sedative.

Mike looks up for anyway he might get free but his hands are cuffed together and there is a study copper pipe above his head that has no way of escaping without a key.

"So what? I'm under arrest again?" Mike grumbles.

"No Mike, this is for your own good. Now officially you are not under arrest..." Briggs begins to lecture.

"So you've kidnapped me." Mike cuts him off. Mike realizes upon second look that he appears to be in a broom closet. He see's Briggs leaning against a shelf across from him.

"Kidnapping is a strong word dude." Johnny says, and Mike's realizes Johnny's in the closet as well. Damn. How many agents could you hide in a janitors closet? "We're giving you a chance to cool off. We can't have you going all psycho like you did last time someone attacked Paige."

The mention of Paige's name puts Mike in high alert. "Is she out of surgery yet?"

"No, and until she is, and until that shooter is safe behind bars, you are staying locked up here my friend." Briggs says, arms crossed casually across his chest.

"You realize this is an unlawful detention." Mike says blandly. He doesn't expect his words to have any effect on Johnny and Briggs. A few months ago, Mike would have been outraged, but he's used to these unconventional methods by now.

"What, you going to report us? We're saving your crazy white ass." Johnny scoffs.

"Mike we don't want to, but if it comes down to it, Johnny and I are both prepared to swear you willingly complied with a really kinky threesome." Briggs says with a completely straight face. "In fact you cuffed yourself."

Mike is sure Briggs is bluffing, but he still cringes at the mental image.

"It's for your own good, son." Johnny agrees.

Finally coming to terms with the fact that his roommates are seriously going to keep him cuffed to a pipe for the foreseeable future, Mike resigns to ask the one question he's afraid to hear the answer to. "Is she ok?"

"We don't know man. Charlie's going to let us know when she's out of surgery." Briggs says. Mike sighs in frustration. He will not cry in front of these guys. Especially not when his hands are cuffed over his head and he can't hide it.

"So Mikey, now that I have your undivided attention… What the hell man? You scared the shit out of me earlier. I mean I thought for a second you were going to shoot me. TWICE!"

"Well about now I'm kind of wishing I did." Mike grumbles. He's calm now, and the sedative still has a dulling sensation on his mind. They really don't need to keep him cuffed here anymore. This is ridiculous.

The closet door opens and Jakes shoves his way into the already crowded broom closet.

"Ok guys, I got the scoop on our shooter." Jakes says casually, like this is all perfectly normal.

"Jakes can you uncuff me man?" Mike appeals to the most reasonable roommate he has. "I'm fine."

"Nope." Jakes says, ignoring Mike's handcuffed plea and uncomfortable predicament the same as one might decline to pass the salt.

"Mikey, what is this on your back bro?" Johnny says, distracted by a glimpse he catches of Mike's lower back. With Mike's arms raised over his head, his shirt has hiked up exposing the small of his back and Paige's most recent artwork.

"Leave it alone Johnny." Mike groans, helpless to move his arms to lower his shirt.

"Damn Warren… that is some hot ink. I had no clue." Briggs comments, joining Johnny in leaning down to stare at Mike's backside.

"Just leave it alone!" Mike is frustrated with his roommates. He's all for light hearted banter, but they're not just hanging out at the house here, Paige almost died, she might be hurt right now! They need to focus on the important things."Jakes! What is going on with the shooter?!"

"That is a lot of butterflies my friend." Briggs whistles, impressed, all three of his male roommates now standing behind a helpless Mike staring at his back.

"Wait is there writing too? What does it say?" Jakes is too preoccupied with Mike's butt to answer him.

"I'm a pretty princess buy me a drink and I'll…" Johnny reads aloud. "I can't read the rest it's below his belt line."

"Damn Levi? How far down does this thing go?" Briggs asks.

"You let her draw on you? I thought you were smart. It's Paige! You can't trust her with that." Jakes asks.

"GUYS! Focus! The shooter! Paige!" Mike tries to wiggle away but, in his current position, is helpless to do much but just stand there arms above his head.

"You know I like the way that at first this looks like it's just a cool design but if you turn your head to the side…"

"WOAH!"

"Oh! That is not ok."

"Damn Warren! That is just disturbingly graphic…"

Mike hasn't seen what Paige has drawn on his back, but he has a decent guess of the level of tabooness. Still she could have drawn the entire karma sutra on him and it still wouldn't trump the importance of the fact that Jakes knows information about the shooter. "GUYS! Focus! Paige! The shooter!"

"Ok, here's what I know. The shooter is a 33 year old male named Emmanuel Oni. He was checked in about a week ago for severe injuries to the groin. Apparently he almost bled out before he got there from the *ahem* dismemberment. "

"Wait what?" Johnny asked, certain Jakes couldn't be saying what he was thinking.

"His dick got taken off Johnny." Jakes explains in plain English, rolling his eyes. All four men involuntarily winced.

"Anyways, he doesn't speak English. From what I could tell he was speaking Yoruba."

"That's a Nigerian language. That means he probably was one of Bello's guys."

"Oh my god… The guy from the other day. The one outside Paige's room who you said had turrets." Mike turned to Briggs. "That's him."

"But why was he shooting at Paige?" Johnny asked, "Does Bello have more guys out there and now that he's dead they want revenge?"

"Paige said she put the guy in the hospital." Mike said, trying to remember any details he might have missed.

"Wait, Paige took his dick off?!" Johnny asked incredulously, wincing at the thought. "Wow. Remind me not to piss her off."

"So what he was one of her attackers? I thought you shot them all on your mass murder spree." Jakes says, and both Briggs and Johnny shoot Jakes a warning look. "Excuse me, 'heroic rescue.'" Jakes rolls his eyes.

"Did you recognize him Mike? Did one survive?" Briggs asks.

"No. I killed five guys… Paige, she said she was captured by six. I didn't even think anything of it at the time, but she said she didn't remember anything after being captured… How could she have known who he was?" Mike is thinking aloud to himself. "I need to talk to her."

"Well that should be doable because I just got a text from Chuck saying the surgery went well, and after she gets a blood transfusion she should be able to see visitors." Briggs says, as he reads his phone which just buzzed. "Looks like our little fighters going to be ok."

Charlie is already at Paige's bedside when the men arrive. Standing over Paige's body, a silent moment passes between the group as they all are thankful they're still a house of six. The silence is broken by Johnny who nudges Mike saying, "Well? You going to give her a kiss to wake her up Prince Charming? She probably wouldn't bite you."

"Bite me Johnny." Mike says, his eyes not leaving Paige. He had so many questions for her. Right now, just staring at her sleeping face, knowing she would wake up again, would have to be enough. The sedative still thick in his brain, Mike pulls up a chair beside her bed and falls asleep.


	19. Chapter 19

Author's Notes: Painted the entire downstairs bathroom, painted my mailbox, made some pumpkin spice pudding and typed this chapter. My hand is cramping, but a damn productive day so far. So when I finally sat down and organized all my scribbles into a rough outline and realized this story is going to be at least another ten chapters, possibly twenty... After this I swear I'm sticking to drabbles. So much time! Thanks for the reviews and encouragement!

* * *

Mike wakes up to fingers gently raking through his hair in soothing patterns. He's sitting in a chair next to Paige's bed with his arms folded on the edge of her bedside and his head resting on his arms. Paige is laying on her side staring at him affectionately as her fingers comb through his hair. He sits up and rubs the sleep from his eyes.

"Morning blue eyes." She murmurs to him and he looks towards the window to see the sun is already high in the sky.

"Hi." He says, embarrassed to be caught off guard. "How long have you been up?"

"Not too long. I like watching you sleep." She smiles sweetly at him. "You always look so peaceful."

"Did the pain wake you up? I can have the nurses bring you more pain meds." Mike says in a business like tone.

She shakes her head no and assures him, "I'm fine. I feel a little better actually. Do I still have my spleen?"

"Yes. They stitched you back up, but it was close. That was a really stupid dangerous thing you did there Paige. You got lucky. If you had taken a direct hit to your spleen you'd be dead right now. It was so damaged they almost had to remove it." Mike lectures her.

"Good that I still have it then. I know it's not necessarily a required organ, but I am rather fond of it." Paige says lightly to contrast his serious tone, her hand going to her side. "Are you ok? He didn't shoot you or anything right?"

"No, I wasn't hurt." Mike says in a short clipped tone.

"Your lip…" She reaches out to touch his face and the bruised cut that's now on his mouth but he pulls away from her touch. Mike chooses not to tell her how it was Johnny and not the shooter who busted his lip while they wrestled.

She looks hurt that he pulled away from her, but brings her hand back to the bed staring at him inquisitively, taking in his ragged appearance. "You look tired."

"I've been waiting for you to come out of surgery all night." Mike says in the same cool tone. He decides to also leave out the part about how Briggs drugged him.

"Mmmm… well I'm out now. Come to bed." Paige scoots over to make room from him, but Mike doesn't budge from his chair. Paige can see the wheels in his head turning. "Hey smart guy, what's going on in that tortured brain of yours?"

"Just get some sleep." Mike grumbles. She's just woken up. He doesn't want to fight with her right now. The conversation can wait.

"Mike you're starting to scare me. What's going on?" Paige asks, sensing the anger behind his quiet exterior. She can't sleep knowing he's like this. Mike breathes deeply, but doesn't answer, not able to look her in the eyes.

"Mike… talk to me please. What's wrong?" Paige reaches out and takes his hand, which he again pulls out of her reach. He shakes his head and stands up walking across the room, staring out the window. Paige sits up in bed, watching his stiff silhouette. Finally, without turning around, he speaks.

"You lied to me." Mike says darkly.

"What?" Paige asks, confused.

"You lied to me." Mike repeats, this time turning around to face her. "When you came out of surgery the first time, you remembered swallowing the watch. You told me you did it because you knew I would find you."

"I just…"

Mike doesn't give her a chance to speak. "You knew there were six men, and all the reports I filed only said there were five."

"I don't understand what you're getting at."

"When that man walked into the room, you recognized him before you even saw the gun. You knew exactly who he was and how he was injured and said you put him in the hospital."

"I-" Paige begins to explain but again Mike cuts her off.

"You remembered swallowing the watch. You remembered attacking that man. You told me you didn't remember anything! That you got captured, and then you woke up here. You lied to me!" Mike is still yelling at her. How could she lie to him? How could he be there for her if she didn't trust him with the truth.

Paige doesn't answer, just looks down at the IV she twists in her hands.

"Paige, what else do you remember?" Mike demands.

"What do you want me to say Mike?" Paige asks quietly.

Mike was hoping that somehow he was wrong. That there was a simple explanation for everything that he had overlooked. That she really didn't remember anything and had told him the truth. Her soft question may as well be a confession though, and it confirm his worst fears.

"The truth." Mike says firmly, not sure he actually wants to hear it.

"The truth?" Paige says quietly, setting her jaw before bringing her stubborn green eyes up to meet his. "Fine. I remember everything. Every hour, minute and second. Every damn excruciating detail."


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's Notes:** WARNING this chapter talks about what happened to Paige. It's fairly dark, so you may want to skip it if you're queasy.

I'm thinking I'm probably going to make this the last chapter and then start a new Story called "Sound" (Safe & Sound, both the Taylor Swift and the Capital City songs have been on my soundtrack while writing this). Sound would be rated "M" because I think there's going to be too many sex issues not to have it be. I was originally going to have Sound be from Paige's POV, but instead I think it's going to stay mainly Mike's though Paige's may sneak in there every now and then.

As always, thank you so much for the reviews and encouragement. Honestly not much would get written without them.

* * *

**Safe 20**

"You remember?" Mike's heart is breaking for Paige as he watches her sitting there with anger and pain flashing in her unfocused eyes. She nods resolutely.

"Paige, I need to know…. what happened to you?" Mike begs.

She takes a deep resigned breath, staring straight ahead, not at him. Finally she scoots over and motions for him to join her on the bed. She's afraid of his reaction. She's afraid he'll run from her or be disgusted, and she needs him close enough to hold onto if she's going to make it through the story.

Mike sits back down on the bed, his back up against the wall. She sits with her back leaning against his chest, so she doesn't have to look into his eyes as she speaks. She doesn't want to see his revulsion. He wraps his arms around her loosely, taking a deep breath and mentally preparing himself. He doesn't know why he's so scared. Everything she's about to tell him has already happened, he knows the outcome, but still he can't shake the feeling of trepidation. She holds onto his arm that's wrapped around her chest as if she's afraid he's going to disappear.

"What I told you before was true. I was walking to the Red Line when six guys jumped me. They chloroformed me and I woke up in the trunk of a car. I knew I was screwed, so I swallowed the watch out of desperation and almost choked to death in the attempt."

She's barely started her story, and Mike is already having trouble breathing. He's not sure he's going to make it through the entire thing if this is how he's reacting to the beginning.

"When we got to the warehouse, they stripped me down and tied me up. The whole time they kept taunting me, and touching me. I remember every second of it. I still feel their hands on me." Her nails unconsciously dig deeper into his forearm as she says this, and Mike freezes behind her. He doesn't want to move or touch her for fear she'll mistake his caress for their gropes.

"I couldn't fight back. They gagged me, so I couldn't scream. I wasn't cooperating so they drugged me. The drugs just seemed to magnify every sensation. I have never felt less in control of my whole body." She states it all in a dead tone. No emotion inflects in her voice. "Mike, I have never felt so helpless."

Even though none of this was new information for Mike, hearing it from Paige's lips in such a bitter, matter-of-fact way was shocking.

"Then they each took turns raping me."

This was the part Mike knew was coming, but it still churns his stomach to hear her say the words aloud. His arms tighten around her protectively. He doesn't want to ever let her go again. He gulps and tries to keep his breathing steady, but he's sure she can feel his pulse speed up.

"One of them didn't want to wait in line, so he decided he would use my mouth. It was the only time I was able to fight back, and I bit down so hard I'm pretty sure I severed it off almost completely." Mike's horrified at the action, but at the same time weirdly proud that Paige fought back. He's glad that she was able to inflict some damage to those monsters as well.

"Blood was everywhere, I was just choking on it. I'm not sure how much of it was his and how much was mine because that's when they really started beating me." Paige's steady voice is starting to shake.

Her words are coming faster, like she's going to run out of air and has to tell him everything before she does. "They kicked me in the stomach until I threw up blood. There was just so much blood, and everything I put in my mouth since that night tastes like it. Which is why I don't want to eat any damn jello."

Mike squeezes his eyes shut. He didn't know… How could she have been in such psychological torture for the last few days without him knowing? She seemed so happy despite it all, so normal. Sure she'd been eating less, but he just assumed that was the meds and the bad hospital food.

"They didn't just kick me. They tortured me. They slapped me. They cut me. They got out a bucket of water and tried to drown me. They said they just wanted to keep me screaming, so things kept getting worse. Every time I tried to fight back they just were encouraged to go harder. When I tried to get up, they stomped on my hand." Paige held up her broken fingers in demonstration.

Mike takes her broken fingers and gently presses them to his lips. He can't say anything. He prays it's the end of her story, but she continues.

"When I passed out, they burned me to wake me up. They called it branding me." After a moment's pause she asks, "Have you seen my burn?"

"Paige you don't have to show me…" It's too much. He's making her reveal too much of her wounded soul. She's been through so much, and now he's selfishly making her relive it. He's making her expose herself once again. He's no better than those monsters.

"You said you wanted to know everything." She inches up her hospital gown, exposing her inner upper thigh. She pulls back the bandage there and inscribed in bright angry letters red welts is the word '_whore_.'

She then looks up to finally see his reaction, smiling a wry smile she says, "On the bright side, after all that abuse, no one wanted to fuck me."

Mike's aware her eyes are on him, but he's unable to look away from the word burned into her flesh. His hand comes down to tenderly touch the unmarred skin around the wound on her inner thigh. The word is jarring, but Mike's eyes are drawn to the scratches above it, still hidden by part of the bandage.

"What's above it?" His breath catches in his chest. There's more she's not telling him.

"Nothing… they decided to carve something on me like a tree. It will heal." She looks away from his face and she starts to cover it back up. Mike's hand comes out to stop her.

"Paige. No secrets." He brings trembling fingers up to peel the bandage back. He almost vomits at what he sees. Scratched into her skin by knife point is his name. '_Michael's_'.

_'Michael's whore'_ is written on her inner thigh. She's known all along that this was his fault and she still let him stay beside her. Those words. Proof that it's his fault. Here he's been trying to care for her, and he's only been a reminder of this horrible scar.

"I think the idea was that you'd be able to identify me when you found the body." Paige says, embarrassed she pulls her hospital gown back down to cover her leg.

"Paige… I'm so sorry." He should have been there sooner. He should have stopped this. She's right. He had almost been too late. If he had been just a little bit later he would have just found her body.

"But you didn't find the body. You found me Mike." Paige says firmly looking up at him as if she's reading his mind, reminding him of what's important. "Just when I was convinced I was going to die there... Just when I wanted to die... There were your blue eyes. You carried me out of there, and you saved me Mike."

"Why didn't you tell me you remembered?"

"Because it's my burden. I didn't want it to be yours." Paige says quietly.

"Paige…" Mike doesn't know what to say looking at her.

He wants to do a million contradictory things. He wants to scream at her for keeping this all from him. He wants to kiss her and make love to her until she can't remember any man touching her before him. He wants to shake her for thinking she can handle this alone. He wants to run away so he doesn't have to see the damage of what they did. He wants to cry for her, and all she's been through. He wants to hit something. He wants revenge for her. He wants to hold onto her forever and keep her safe.

"So yes. I lied to you. The same way you lied to me." Paige says gently leaning back against him and looking up at his face.

"I haven't…" Mike begins to say, still overwhelmed by her story, but Paige cuts him off.

"Why didn't you tell me you were on probation because of me?" She asks pointedly.

"How did you know?"

"Charlie told me."

"I didn't tell you because it's not important." Mike says, and it's true. With everything else that's been going on, she doesn't need to worry about something as insignificant as his pending investigation.

"Mike, it's your career. It's all you've wanted and worked for your whole life. It is important." She says simply. Somehow, when faced with all this, Mike can't seem to care about his job anymore or anything that isn't her. But Paige does and she promises him, "I'm so sorry Mike. I'm planning on testifying at your hearing. If they fire you, I'll resign."

"It doesn't matter what you say. Because when they ask me if I'm sorry… I am." Mike's blue eyes cloud over with hate, and he lightly pushes Paige away. He can feel the anger filling himself and he has to move a safe distance from her. "I'm not sorry that I killed them, but that I killed them so quickly. I want them to suffer."

By this point Mike is literally shaking from hate. He has never felt this way before, and he's overwhelmed. Was this what Briggs felt when the Estate burned down? How did he not go insane all these years. How did he live with the hate. Mike's overactive mind is churning with all this new information, feeding the fire as he tries to process it. He begins to pace back and forth by her bed.

"I should have known… I was out in the hall with Briggs and I saw the shooter out there, outside your door. He was screaming, and the words were dick and bitch, and I just didn't make the connection to you. Fuck, why am I always too late?!" Mike slams his fist into the wall in frustration.

Paige gets off the hospital bed and carefully walks over to where Mike's leaning his head against the wall he just punched. She places her hand gently on his back and chides him softly "Mike, are you blaming yourself because you don't speak fluent Yoruba now? You only just learned Spanish this year! Mike, you've done nothing wrong. This is not your fault."

"It's all my fault." Mike says, his voice coming out in a choked sob. He has to tell her the truth, even if she hates him. "They took you to get back at me."

"What do you mean?" Paige asks, looking up at him with confused green eyes.

"Bello, he took you to hurt me. He wanted me to suffer-" Mike says, his voice shaking.

"Well from the looks of it he did a pretty good fucking job. Are you crying?" Paige asks.

"No." Mike quickly wipes tears away, embarrassed that he's crying and she's still not. "Paige, how can you ever forgive me?"

"Because bad things happen, and this wasn't your fault. It goes with the job. And now I can use the ruptured spleen card to get you to do all of my rounds on the chore wheel." She gives him a half hearted smile, trying to make him laugh.

"It is a good card." Mike couldn't believe that even with this, Paige was choosing to see the bright side. She wraps her arms around him in a hug, and Mike tries to pull himself together as he kisses her forehead and buries his head in her hair. For a minute they just hold each other, and Mike can feel his heartbeat calming down.

"So why'd he take me?" Paige finally asks in a light tone.

"Someone saw us at the Drop. He thought you were my girlfriend." Mike mumbles into her hair.

"Seems a popular idea recently. What exactly did you tell those nurses?" Paige grins, pulling back to look up at him mischievously.

"I told them we were married." Mike admits, he quickly justifies himself to her. "It was the only way they'd talk to me about what was going on with you."

"Damn. Just think, I almost made you a widower. You could have gotten LAID." Paige laughs, returning to the bed to sit down.

"Don't even joke about that." Mike says seriously.

"Oh come on. You know Richelle's out there waiting for me to kick the bucket." Paige jokes, leaning back in bed with pained movements. "Young sexy childless widower in need of healing, you should use that as your next undercover role at the bar. Johnny will be so jealous he didn't think of it first."

"Paige you could have died. It's not funny." Even her light hearted joking is a stab to his heart. She's not allowed to die. Not even as a joke. He will not lose her.

"But I didn't, so you have to laugh." She lectures him quietly. "That's life Mike. We're all going to die someday, and until that day, we laugh."

There's a million things Mike needs to say to her, but he can't seem to find a single word to express himself. She yawns sleepily, and reaches out for him. "Mike come to bed. I need a nap and you look like you need one more than me."

Mike has far too many thoughts in his mind to ever be able to sleep, but he obliges her. Mike climbs into the bed beside her and she curls up to him, resting her head on his chest. She sleepily asks "Any idea on when I'll get to sleep in my actual bed?"

"They were mainly keeping you here to monitor the tear in your spleen. Now that you're all patched up, you should be discharged tomorrow."

"Good then we can finally go home and things can go back to normal."

"Yeah, tomorrow we'll go home." Mike says, kissing her forehead and wondering how things will ever go back to normal after all this.


	21. Author's Note

Author's Note: I'm finishing this story at the hospital. For the sequel go read my story "Sound" which takes place immediately after "Safe."

Sound is going to be different in a couple ways. It's more of a character piece. In Safe I wanted to play around with cliffhangers, action and suspense, trying to make it more like the TV show.

Sound will have less action, and be more focused on how both Mike and Paige try to come to terms with what has happened, and how their relationship has changed. It's rated M, so you can't find it unless you change your filters. I'm excited about it!

If you have time, I appreciate reviews on what you liked and didn't like about all my pieces so I can improve! I also always like talking about what you took away from it, and what character motivations are. Thank you all so much for the support you've provided while I wrote this piece!


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